Rory McIlroy fights back from poor start to Deutsche Bank Championship
Saturday 3 September 2016 00:14, UK
Rory McIlroy recovered from a horrific start to card a level-par 71 in the opening round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston.
McIlroy began with a solid par at the 10th, but he three-putted the next green and then got into severe trouble following a wayward drive at the 12th, running up a triple-bogey seven to plummet to four over after just three holes.
After carving his drive into the trees, the world No 5 stabbed his second only a few yards before blocking his third into further trouble on the right, from where he was forced to take a penalty drop.
He then failed to locate the green with his fifth and pitched to just inside 15 feet, although he holed a good putt to avoid the indignity of a "snowman" on his card.
To his credit, McIlroy started to repair the damage immediately as he converted an eight-foot birdie chance at the 13th, and he followed a run of four pars with a neat up-and-down for another gain at the 18th.
McIlroy made a fine start to the front nine when he holed from 12 feet for birdie at the first, although he missed chances from similar range on the fourth and fifth greens before getting back to level for the day at the seventh - splashing out of a greenside bunker to three feet.
He parred safely in to remain six strokes off the lead, held jointly by Ryan Moore and James Hahn after both opened with flawless rounds of 65.
McIlroy revealed on the eve of the tournament that he is now working with putting coach Phil Kenyon in a bid to improve his confidence on the greens.
Kenyon, who also coaches Open champion Henrik Stenson, linked up with the 27-year-old last week and McIlroy said: "Green reading is different, my set-up is different and aiming the putter is different, so everything is - it's a work in progress.
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"I'm in constant touch with Phil, I feel like he's obviously the way to go for me right now and we'll see how it goes and work hard at it and hopefully I start to see little improvements each and every week."
