OLYMPIA FIELDS, Sick. — Rory McIlroy didn’t thoughts being within the tough at rain-soaked Olympia Boxes, apart from for having timber and a bunker between him and the seventeenth inexperienced. Or even that didn’t subject Thursday within the BMW Championship.
McIlroy discovered the shorten grass most effective six instances with 18 tee photographs — 3 of them on par 3s — and nobody would have guessed that taking a look at his card. He performed bogey-free for a 5-under 65, giving him a proportion of the supremacy with British Discoverable champion Brian Harman in the second one FedEx Cup playoff tournament.
“Only hitting three fairways today and coming up with 65 is a bit of a bonus,” McIlroy stated.
The vegetables have been so comfortable from a two-hour hail lengthen within the morning that McIlroy discovered seeking to get at pins was once more straightforward coming from the tough, since the ball wouldn’t have as a lot spin.
“I’m not saying I was trying to aim for the rough,” he stated with a grin.
And undoubtedly the spot he discovered himself in on the par-4 seventeenth wasn’t perfect. He most effective had 116 yards left at the 456-yard hollow, however he had a arise of timber blocking off his trail to the fairway, a weighty bunker in entrance of the striking floor.
McIlroy punched 7-iron via an opening within the branches, simply over the bunker, simply over the fairway and nearest chipped in for birdie. It was once that roughly hour.
“There was a couple of branches above the window I was looking at, and I was like, ‘If it hits those, it’s just going to drop down near that front left bunker and I’ll have a decent angle down the green and have a 10-footer or less to save par,'” McIlroy stated. “It was a bit of a hit-and-a-hope. Just trying to thread that needle. It was either chip it out or take it on. And it’s only Thursday.
“I assumed, ‘What the heck? I’ll rush it on and spot what occurs.'”
Harman, who returned from his British Open title last week at the FedEx Cup playoff opener with some rust, delivered his excitement toward the end of the round. He holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th, and then chipped in for birdie on the 17th.
They were were one shot clear of a large group at 66 that included Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala and Rickie Fowler, a good start for different reasons.
Scheffler went nine months without finishing worse than 12th and then went outside the top 20 for consecutive weeks as his putting has struggled. Fowler has a chance to earn one of the six automatic spots on the U.S. Ryder Cup team by winning.
As for Fitzpatrick and Theegala, it’s all about being among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup after this week to advance to the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake.
Fitzpatrick is No. 40 and needs a good finish to reach the Tour Championship and salvage a disappointing year. Last year’s U.S. Open champion beat Jordan Spieth in a playoff at Hilton Head, but he has one top 10 in his last nine starts that has seen his FedEx Cup standing drop.
“In reality happy,” Fitzpatrick said of his performance, adding “truly” six more times, equaling the number of birdies he made in the opening round.
Theegala is at No. 31 going into the BMW Championship and jumped into the mix by holing out with a 9-iron from the 14th fairway for an eagle.
“I feel it’s unattainable to forget about,” Theegala said of the FedEx Cup standings. “I feel everybody could be mendacity in the event that they didn’t know precisely the place they stood — no longer precisely however quite of an concept what it’s moving to rush to get to later year.”
Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young were among those at 67, both trying to improve their Ryder Cup stock. Jon Rahm, two-time protecting champion Patrick Cantlay and Spieth have been at 68.
Lucas Glover, going for his third straight victory in as many weeks, shot 70.
Rahm won at Olympia Fields in 2020 on a course so dry and firm that 4-under par got him into a playoff he won over Dustin Johnson.
The rough was long and wet. The greens were so soft it made it a challenge to hit it the right distance — especially with a back pin — knowing the ball would zip back. That’s why McIlroy didn’t mind if the ball was in the rough. This was a time to blast away, and the game’s most artistic driver put on a show.
“A quantity of the tee photographs I used to be simply being tremendous competitive as a result of I knew at the back of my thoughts I wasn’t truly being penalized for it,” McIlroy said. “The golfing route is not at all taking part in how it performed in 2020. That was once no longer my means a couple of years in the past right here.
“But hopefully with the wind and the sun, the golf course starts to firm up a little bit and starts to play a little bit more like how I think it should play.”
