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An 11 and an 8 from Rory McIlroy were among some horror numbers on day one of the $19.5m Players Championship

The first prize of $3.5m is gone from defending champion Rory McIlroy’s grasp after some of the world’s best were brought to their knees at the “fifth major” in Florida.

Russell GouldRussell Gould
@gouldynews
2 min read
March 12, 2021 - 5:13PM
NCA NewsWire
All Rory McIlroy could do was laugh as he fell apart in Florida while his playing partner Sergio Garcia carved the course up. Picture: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images/AFP
All Rory McIlroy could do was laugh as he fell apart in Florida while his playing partner Sergio Garcia carved the course up. Picture: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images/AFP

Rory McIlroy won the The Players Championship last year but showed even the best are fallible with a hacker-like quadruple bogey eight to close out the first round of his title defence in Florida.

The former world number one put two balls into the giant expanse of water to the left of the fairway at the 18th to walk off the TPC Sawgrass course with a seven-over-par 79.

That was a massive 14 shots adrift of opening round leader, and McIlroy’s playing partner, Sergio Garcia.

McIlroy, who started his day with a double-bogey, is staring down the barrel of missing the cut at the $19.5m event.

His wasn’t the worst effort though, with Korean Byeong Hun An carding an unbelievable 11 at the famous par three 17th, the hole with the island green.

He put his first four shots in the water and two putted for the second highest score ever on the hole. There were 35 balls put in the water at the 17th in the opening round.

McIlroy said it was hard to recover from his horrible start when he was “trying to figure it out as you go along”.

“You’re trying to figure it out but you still know you’re not really sure where the shots are coming from and then it’s sort of as I said earlier in the week, it’s hard to at least to try to eliminate one side of the golf course, basically,” a deflated McIlroy said after his round.

“I mean obviously the big number on 18 didn’t help and then doubling the first wasn’t helpful either. So yeah, I just think just it’s hard to recover when you just haven’t played good. I mean regardless if you take that 18th hole out it still wasn’t a very good day.”

Garcia said you didn’t have to be far off “to get penalised a lot” but said McIlroy could come back.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t hit a good tee shot on the first, on the 10th hole, made double, which is never the kind of start you want,” he said.,

“And then just a couple, just a little bit off and just missed a couple of birdies, feels like you’re not making any ground, you try to force things a little bit and obviously unfortunately for him it bit him a little bit.

“But I told him when we finished, just go out there tomorrow and get it and you never know, I shot 7-under so he can shoot 7-under tomorrow and hopefully make the cut. So we’ll see. He’s able to do it.”

McIlroy wasn’t alone in posting a big number.

Former British Open champion Henrik Stenson was dead last after shooting a horrible 13-over par 85, which included two triple-bogeys and two double-bogeys as the Florida layout brought a raft of the world’s best to their knees.

Stenson was one of 10 players to shoot a score in the 80s.

Luckily, the seven Australians in the field weren’t among them as they continued to complete their opening rounds, with Jason Day leading the way, in the clubhouse at two-under when darkness brought an early end to the opening round.

Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman both shot one-under opening rounds, with Adam Scott and Matt Jones a shot further back.

Originally published as An 11 and an 8 from Rory McIlroy were among some horror numbers on day one of the $19.5m Players Championship

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Original URL: https://www.ntnews.com.au/sport/an-11-and-an-8-from-rory-mcilroy-were-among-some-horror-numbers-on-day-one-of-the-195-million-players-championship/news-story/230bd3799c244d8ca68feff0417d09b1