A wayward Rory McIlroy endured a dreadful start at the Players Championship after an opening four-over-par round of 76 at TPC Sawgrass left him 12 shots off the early lead.
The Northern Irishman was the odd man out in the marquee group of the first two rounds as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the only two players ahead of him in the world rankings, both finished under par.
McIlroy now faces a huge challenge to even make the cut at an event he won in 2019.
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However, only Scheffler would be have been happy with his four-under 68 – Rahm finished one under – but that was still four adrift of the early leader Chad Ramey, a second-year PGA Tour professional and Players’ debutant whose 64 was just one short of equalling the course record.
Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa was another who showed low scoring was possible as his bogey-free round of five birdies and an eagle left him one off the pace.
But McIlroy could not take advantage of the same conditions as he began with a double-bogey six, ended with bogey six with three further bogeys and only two birdies in between on Thursday.
Even when he did manage to get himself in position, producing some magic from under the trees at the par-five 16th, his seventh hole, but he three-putted to squander the eagle opportunity.
The Northern Irishman struggled off the tee, hitting just six of 14 fairways, and that caused him problems and he faces a real battle to stay in the tournament on Friday.
“You’ve got the four par-fives which are very gettable, and then you’ve got a few other holes, four and 12 specifically, so you’ve got six really gettable ones that if you’re on your game, you should be making birdie on those,” said McIlroy.
“I feel like this is as penal as I’ve seen it out of the rough for a long time. I think you’d have to go back to when the tournament was played in May, when we were in Bermuda rough, for it to be as penal as that.
“The three-putt on 16 was probably the one that sort of stopped any momentum.
“I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalise on that and after making bogey on one and three sort of was tough to get it back from there.”
McIlroy plays in the same star-studded group featuring the top three ranked players in the world, with the trio set to start at 5.56pm today.
Ireland's Shane Lowry also faces a battle to make the cut having finished on five over yesterday and his second round gets underway at 12.34pm.
Waterford's Seamus Power tees off at 1.18pm.
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