GOLF:WHO KNOWS if redemption or revenge was the true motivation, but Rory McIlroy – given the character of the fall guy in golf's tragic drama in the Masters a mere two months ago – showed maturity beyond his years to throw down a marker in yesterday's first round of the 111th US Open at Congressional Country Club in shooting an opening six-under-par 65 to establish a three stroke lead.
For sure, McIlroy played flawless golf – hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation – as he took a huge step towards the season’s second major.
On a day which opened with grey cloud cover and some soft rain, the course – playing to 7,514 yards, just 60 yards off its monstrous longest – provided a tough examination. Still, it wasn’t overly penal; and South Korea’s YE Yang, the 2009 US PGA champion,came home in 33 strokes for a 68, three-under-par, to lead the first wave.
It was to prove but an appetiser for what was to follow, as McIlroy – playing majestically – headed an eclectic mix of international players in the quest to succeed Graeme McDowell as champion.
McIlroy – the boy who would be king at Augusta in April only to suffer a final round collapse as Charl Schwartzel took the green jacket – played the best golf of all, claiming six birdies and not a single dropped shot in a breathtaking exhibition.
Having led for three and a half rounds of the Masters before that late meltdown, the 22-year-old Ulsterman showed no mental scars from that humbling experience as he played beautifully tee-to-green in hitting the greens in regulation time and time again.
McIlroy, who started on the Par 3 10th, covered his outward ninein a mere 32 strokes to turn threeunder and then rolled in further birdies on the first and fourth, a simple tap in from 18 inches, to move to five-under.
It got even better for McIlroy on the Par 5 sixth, playing 573 yards. After a drive of 320 yards, he hit an iron approach to the back of the green and two putted from 12 feet for a birdie to move to six-under,at which stage he had a three stroke lead over Yang and Sergio Garcia.
The task of defending a major championship, more often than not, is a thankless one. Not since Curtis Strange – in 1989 – has any player successfully retained the US Open title and, yet, Graeme McDowell – who handed back the silver trophy with a winged lady atop it without a hint of sentimentality – showed he was up to the challenge.
For McDowell, though, it was a more than satisfactory opener to his title defence. McDowell may have, as he put it himself afterwards, “parred the place to death on the back nine,” but – as he proved at Pebble Beach a year ago – the route to victory in this Major of all Majors is often to thread carefully,especially in the early stages.
In shooting an opening 70, one-under- par, McDowell ticked all of those boxes. After starting his round with a bogey – “Sometimes that can be the slap in the face you need on a Thursday morning,” he remarked philosophically later – McDowell, who wasn’t to drop another shot in a composed round, responded immediately with a birdie on the
Par 3 second where he hit a rescue club to six feet and then added another birdie on sixth before reeling off 12 successive pars.
“I set myself the challenge to go out and be patient, to stick to my processes. I have been a bit too focused on results lately and I knew I had to get back to basics, to think properly and to get back into my good routines . . . it felt normal out there, just like another Major championship and it didn’t feel like I was the defending champion. I executed my gameplan and felt good doing it. It’s an old cliché, that you can’t win a tournament on a Thursday but you can play yourself out of it,”said McDowell.
McDowell was ready to get on with playing rather than talking. As he put it, “I was excited to come here, but I was also excited to maybe close a chapter that was the last 12 months and try and start talking about the future rather than talking about the past.”
On a day where the top three players were grouped together, they failed to fire on all cylinders: world number one Luke Donald opened with a 75, having had a blistering birdie-birdie start to his round, while Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer each registered 74s.”None of us played well. I think we all just about got what we deserved,” remarked Westwood.
The 10th hole, in particular, came in for some criticism with McDowell remarking,” it’s the only slightly unfair golf hole out here. I think the rest of them are what they are. You play well and you get rewarded.” He would have got some back-up from Phil Mickelson, among others. Mickelson’s opening shot in an attempt for a first US Open title was to put his tee shot on the Par 3 10th into the lake in front of the green, in running up a starting double-bogey.
It was to prove a thoroughly frustrating 41st birthday for Mickleson as his game deteriorated to the point where he often played irons off the tee on the way to a 74.
For the most part, though, Mickelson – like everyone – was left in awe of McIlroy.
