Rory McIlroy shares a strong and honest opinion about his first round at the PGA Championship
Rory McIlroy didn’t hold back when talking about his tough start at the US PGA Championship.
The Northern Irish golfer bounced back after an early bogey at Aronimink Golf Club, making a birdie and then hitting 10 straight pars. But the back nine was rough, with one birdie and five bogeys, leaving him four over par overall.
At 37, Rory knows he has work to do after such a tough first round. When asked about his performance, he didn’t sugarcoat it, simply saying, “S***.”
He explained, “I started missing fairways—on four, six, seven, and nine. That made it really hard, and my angles weren’t great either. I thought I did okay after birdying five to get back to even, but then the bogeys piled up at the end.”
Rory added, “I’m not driving the ball well enough, and it’s been a struggle most of this year. I thought I had it figured out, but when the pressure’s on, my shots just go a bit off.”
He also mentioned that he had to cut his practice round short because of a toe injury but said that wasn’t an excuse for his shaky start. The main problem was missing fairways, which made scoring tough. “There’s definitely a big penalty for missing the fairway—probably more than I expected after being here a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
Rory came into the PGA hoping to win his seventh major after defending his Masters title last month. He won the PGA twice before, in 2012 and 2014, but has had a harder time in recent years since the tournament moved from August to May in 2019.
Earlier this week, he said the date change has affected his results. “I always thought of Akron and the PGA as a two-week stretch after The Open. Since the PGA moved to May, my results here haven’t been great. The time between the Masters and this tournament feels really tight. It used to be in August, and maybe then you could prepare better,” he explained, hoping the good weather this week will help.