Rory McIlroy came out of day one at the BMW Championship in a tie for the lead with American Brian Harman, after an outstanding bogey-free round at the Olympia Fiels Country Club.
McIlroy made a steady start to his round, taking six pars in a row on the front nine, before birdies at the 7th and 9th set him up nicely. Another birdie at ten was followed by five pars and a birdie at 15, before a frankly ridiculous recovery gave him his final birdie of the day at the 17th.
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Ridiculous hole-out helps Rory McIlroy to bogey-free opening round
The Northern Irishman's tee shot left him far to the left on the 17th, with any potential path to the green blocked by the trees in front of him - well, so it seemed.
McIlroy chose a 7-iron and managed to perfectly judge his shot to glide through a gap to the left of the trees directly in front of him, before sensationally riding the bunker to have the ball leap out on the other side and sit just past the green.
From there, the four-time Major champion chipped in to snatch an outstanding birdie, in an outrageous show of skill which put him at the top of the leaderboard. That McIlroy recovered from a situation where a bogey seemed inevitable to ultimately birdie the hole was exemplary of his class.
Just @McIlroyRory things ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/3urMrnj7IM
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 17, 2023
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Speaking after his round, McIlroy said he took a "devil may care" attitude to the shot, saying that he had hoped for a best case scenario of dropping the ball down near the bunker:
The window was okay. It was more 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 sort of near that front left bunker and I'll have a decent angle down the green and mostly have at least a 10-footer or less to save par.
It was a bit of a hit and a hope. Just trying to thread that needle and hit it straight at the 17 sign.
Yeah, it was just one of those, it was either sort of chip it out or try to take it on, and it's only Thursday, I thought, what the heck, I'll take it on and see what happens.
If McIlroy can triumph at the BMW Championship, it will be his third win of 2023, having come out on top at the Dubai Desert Classic in January, and the Scottish Open in July.
McIlroy has won this tournament once before, in 2012, and will hope to add a second in style this weekend. He tees off for round two on Friday alongside Lucas Glover at 6:38pm Irish time.
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