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July 19 2024
Rory McIlroy: Last month, Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy dominated the U.S. Open, but in the first round of The Open at Royal Troon Golf Club, they faced a tougher opponent: Mother Nature. Battling through the wind and rain on Scotland's west coast, both players had a challenging Thursday morning to forget.
DeChambeau, who won his second U.S. Open title with a one-shot victory over McIlroy at No. 2 Pinehurst, shot 5-over 76 on Thursday. Rory McIlroy was two strokes back and 10 behind clubhouse leader Justin Thomas.
DeChambeau vowed to play "boring" golf at Pinehurst, but his game on Thursday was far from it -- for all the wrong reasons. He was three over par through the first four holes, thanks to a three-putt bogey on the first, made another bogey by badly slamming his tee shot on No. 3 and then missed a 3-foot par putt on No. 4.
"The wind was coming and going from the right, and every time I tried to pull the ball, it curved a bit," DeChambeau explained. "It was a really tough challenge, and I should have just cut the ball off."
DeChambeau and McIlroy weren't the only golfers troubled by the unpredictable wind at Royal Troon. Golfers typically play the front nine with the wind at their backs, then finish with a tough back nine with the wind in their faces, but it was the opposite in the first round.
On the 620-yard sixth hole, DeChambeau dragged his drive into the root zone and hit his second shot just 4 yards out of the tall grass. It took him five strokes to get on the green, resulting in a double-bogey score of 7. He carded two more bogeys on Nos. 8 and 15 and finally ended the mayhem by making a 55-foot eagle putt on the 16th.
"It's a completely different test," DeChambeau said. "I didn't get any practice in it, and I didn't really play much in the rain. Yeah, it's a tough test here, something I'm not familiar with. I didn't grow up playing it, and not to say that's the reason. I finished eighth at St. Andrews [in the 2022 Open]. I can do it when it's warm and it's not windy."
McIlroy had no trouble on the first nine holes. He made bogey on No. 1, but quickly responded with a birdie on the par-4 third hole. He was tied after seven holes.
On the par-3 eighth hole, known as the Postage Stamp, McIlroy hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker. He couldn't get the ball out on his second shot, leading to a double-bogey 5.
"It was a tough day," McIlroy said. "I thought I played okay the first half of the round and then I missed the green on the postage stamp and left it and made double. But still, I felt I was in a pretty good position at two over on the 9th, I felt I could maybe get those two shots back, try to get par, something like that."
Things got worse for McIlroy when he made the turn. After making bogey on No. 10, the four-time major champion sliced his tee shot over the rail and out to the right. That led to another double-bogey that dropped his score to 5 over.
"Even with the wind helping me on the back nine, it kept pushing my shots to the left," McIlroy admitted. "I was really taken aback by how tough that part of the course turned out to be. I thought we were going to make it a little easier. The course was playing tough. Conditions are very tough in a wind like this that we haven't seen so far this week."
Thomas, who doesn't have a great record on links courses and has struggled with his form the past two seasons, took the early clubhouse lead by posting a 3-under 68 in the morning wave.
Thomas chipped in from the green for birdie on the par-4 second and added three more birdies and a bogey to make the turn at 3-under 33. After another birdie on the 10th, he pulled his tee shot poorly to the left on No. 12 and had to take a penalty drop, leading to double-bogey. He made bogey on the 13th after pushing his drive into the high rough on the right.
"I've never played a front nine with that kind of wind before; it was something else," Thomas said. "In 2016, I tried driving the first and third holes, but today I used a 7-iron on the first and a 3-wood on the third, finishing up with a wedge. But it was very, very different. But it was all very typical of an Open, just trying to make the best use of the conditions you have." Thomas closed with birdies on the final two holes, including a 25-footer on No. 18, to move him back to 3 under, 1 ahead of Alex Noren, Nicolai Hojgaard, Justin Rose and Russell Henley.
Thomas loves playing on links courses, but he hasn't done much for it. He has finished in the top-15 once in his last seven Open appearances. He opened with an 11-over 82 at last year's Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in England.
Thomas had a first-round lead at last week's Genesis Scottish Open but finished tied for 62.
"I feel like everything is going in the right direction and I'm working on the right things," Thomas said. "Like I said, I don't really have anything special to show. Sometimes that's just the way the game goes. But I know I'm close to the way I'm playing and I'm just going to keep playing and not play for results, just play for my game and everything will fall into place."
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