McIlroy's timing for Masters looking good
Rory McIlroy at Augusta National. Picture: Augusta National Golf Club
Rory McIlroy was pleased to step off the rollercoaster that's left him feeling queasy as the Masters looms and shoot his first bogey-free round for a month in the Valero Texas Open last night.
There was drama in the shape of two lip-outs and a birdie putt that fell into the hole right on the stipulated 10-second limit.
But the Co Down man was pleased to open with a three-under 69 that left him tied for eighth, six shots behind runaway leader Akshay Bhatia.
It was McIlroy's first bogey-free round since the final round of the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches last month and while he swapped a left miss for a miss to the right, he declared himself happy as he counts down to Augusta National next week.
"I thought it was a little better," he said. "Yeah, it was good. The miss I was struggling with the last few weeks has been a left miss with the irons and if anything, most of my misses today were to the right.
"So it was actually a pretty good thing. I'd much rather miss it to the right at the minute than miss it to the left.
"I thought I played pretty well, hit some nice shots, played pretty consistently. I think it's the first round I've had without a bogey in quite a while.
Living on the edge 😳
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 4, 2024
A buzzer beater birdie from @McIlroyRory! pic.twitter.com/serAdvq5Wg
"My game over the last couple of months has been quite volatile, so to go out there and play a solid round of golf in pretty tricky conditions, pretty happy with it."
On a day when scoring was difficult in the breeze, McIlroy was in control at TPC San Antonio, having gained some clarity about his swing issues from veteran coach Butch Harmon recently.
"What I've been trying to do the last couple weeks is no different than what I've been trying to do previously; he just sort of gave me a different way to do it," McIlroy said of his lesson with Harmon.
"You could tell someone five different things and like for the same feel -- like to a piece of a swing, but sometimes none of them resonated, sometimes all of them, sometimes one thing.
"It's just one of those things over the past few months that nothing was resonating with me. He gave me a tiny little something that I went with and, as I said, it's felt a little better over the last two weeks and felt pretty good out there."
As Bhatia made nine birdies in a spectacular 63 to lead by three shots from Brendon Todd and Justin Lower, McIlroy's 69 left him tied for eighth.
He made a chip-and-putt birdie at the par-five second, salvaged a great par from 14 feet at the fifth after a wild drive, and then made a 13-footer at the eighth that had some drama.
His ball stopped on the left lip of the hole and stayed there before eventually falling for birdie.
"Yeah, I backed off the ball twice because of the wind," McIlroy said. "I could feel the wind at my back, so I'm like, 'Do I play the wind, do I not play the wind?' When I ended up hitting the putt, there wasn't really a ton of wind there and I thought I missed it on the left side.
"Obviously the ball hung on the edge and I was just hoping for a gust of wind to come to blow it in and thankfully it did before the 10-second mark."
He lipped out from 21 feet at the 13th, then missed a three-and-a-half footer for birdie at the 14th before watching his birdie chip lip out at the last.
But there were also several missed greens with wedges and that remains a concern for the Masters.
Seamus Power lost nearly two shots on the greens in a 73 that left him tied for 80th while Padraig Harrington three-putted the last for a 75 that left him 120th.w
