Rory McIlroy finished his first round of the 2023 Players Championship by recording his second worst opening round of his 13-year Sawgrass career.
The world number 3 started the event as joint-favourite alongside current rankings leader Jon Rahm but fell behind after a round comprising an opening double-bogey and four further bogeys, including at the 9th, his last hole of the day. Just two birdies offset the mistakes in a round of 76, four-over and 12 shots behind surprise leader Chad Ramey.
Whilst his stats for the round show large negative figures for his short-game, the Irishman spoke about recent issues with his driver, and the reasons he dumped his TaylorMade Stealth Plus in favour of a new Stealth 2 Plus and a new loft setting.
Consistently in the top two for ‘off-the-tee’ stats, the 2023 Dubai Desert Classic winner had found his figures worsening at the Pheonix Open (15th) before being outplayed off the tee-peg by 36 of his peers at Riviera, his worst ranking since the 2021 Irish Open.
McIlroy finished 3rd in the off-the-tee lists for 2021/2022 but currently ranks in 10th for this season so far – small margins, but crucial if you are looking only at the number one slot in the world.
Changing his driver mid-way through the Genesis Invitational, McIlory found some respite when runner-up at Bay Hill last weekend, but admitted today that he still has not got used to the new big stick.
“Look, I wish I could use my driver from last year, but I can’t just because of…you use a driver for so long, and it starts to get a little too….basically it just wouldn’t pass the test,” McIlroy told reporters.
“These driver heads are so finicky, it’s hard to get one exactly the same,” he said, before confirming, “I’m obviously trying my best, trying to get something that’s as close to what I had last year.”
Despite admitting he “just struggled a little bit off the tee the last couple weeks,” McIlory doesn’t put the blame entirely on one club.
“Yeah, there’s obviously a part of it that’s the user, as well. It’s quite a lot of user error in there, as well.”
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