The Masters: Rory McIlroy vows to tidy up after opening six-bogey 73 at Augusta
McIlroy offsets five birdies with six bogeys in a wayward 73 on day one at Augusta
Friday 12 April 2019 11:08, UK
Rory McIlroy conceded he made "too many simple mistakes" as he stumbled to an opening one-over 73 at the Masters.
The pre-tournament favourite struggled for consistency in all parts of his game and mixed five birdies with six dropped shots, although he was only four strokes off the lead when he signed his card having bogeyed the final two holes.
McIlroy got off to a poor start when he blocked his opening tee shot into the pines, scuttled his second up short of the green, pitched on and missed the putt for par.
He was unable to convert a good chip at the second, but he got it right at the third only to three-putt the sixth green before again restoring parity at the long eighth.
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But he then pushed his approach into sand at 10 and dropped another shot, and he bogeyed again at 11 when he bailed out right with his second before he hauled himself back into the tournament with a nice run from the 13th.
He birdied the two par-fives and holed a 20-foot putt for another at the 16th, but his good work was undone over the last two holes as poor drives on both - one right and one left - led to a bogey, bogey finish and dropped him back to one over par.
"The conditions weren't that difficult," he said. "I mean I felt the course was there. It's soft, there's not much wind and I made five birdies, that wasn't the problem. I just made too many mistakes. And that was the problem. And I'm making mistakes from pretty simple positions, just off the side of the green, and 17 and 18 were prime examples of that.
"I've sort of been through it all here at this golf course, so it's fine. You know you're going to have chances and I can accept mistakes if I'm trying and it's not a mental error or I haven't got into bad places.
"So I can accept some mistakes, but six bogeys out there is a little too many and I'm just going to need to tidy that up over the next few days."
McIlroy vowed to work on his putting having found difficulty reading the greens, which are slower than usual following the recent showers that have hit the region and caused two suspensions in practice on Monday and Tuesday.
"I think whenever the greens are a little slower, they don't break as much," he added. "The greens are maybe two or three feet slower than they usually are, just because it's been so soft and the rain. So sometimes that happens. They will get faster as the week goes on, so it's just a matter of adjusting.
"I'm going to go to the putting green and try to figure this out, just the reads more than anything else. I over-read a few early on, and then I started to under-read them coming in. So I just need to try to work on that a little bit."
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