Rory McIlroy made a woeful start to the FedExCup Playoffs as he shot four-over par opening round at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. Playing for the first time since finishing tied for 40th at The Open at Royal Birkdale almost a full month ago, McIlroy was level par going into the final three holes before a disastrous streak left him towards the rear of the field.
Dropped shots at 16 and 17 were followed by a double bogey at TPC Southwind's final hole, which came after McIlroy found the water with his tee shot to the closing par four. The 74 left McIlroy nine shots adrift of the first-round leaders, with Jordan Spieth among a group of five Americans to finish on five-under par. Spieth, who started the week outside of the top 50 players in the FedExCup standings that will go through next week's BMW Championship, is joined in the lead by Michael Thorbjornsen, Kurt Kitayama, Jake Knapp and Michael Kim.
Spieth said: "I just tried to come into this week and just be as patient, non-reactive as possible, dumb it down to try to win the golf tournament and not worry about anything else." England's Tommy Fleetwood, who was paired with Spieth, was a shot off the lead after opening up with a 66 that included a delightful chip in for eagle at the par-five third hole. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Fleetwood said: "I feel good. I didn't really play very good in the practice days.
Game's not really been that great. I've been showing a lot, like some good and some really not so good. "Hit it great off the tee today.
Still my iron play was iffy, but I did a good job of managing it for the most part. Still hit some really good shots, and you can never underestimate how good - I think shooting under par on this golf course is very good." World No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who played alongside McIlroy in the marquee group for the opening two rounds, put himself in a solid position by delivering a 68. Scheffler said: "I felt like I hit a lot of quality shots with my irons.I did a good job of being patient and not trying to force it too much.
"I feel like I was right on the edge of having a good day, kind of all day is how I would describe it. So, I felt like patience-wise, I did a pretty good job." Fleetwood had European company towards the top of the leaderboard, with Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Sepp Straka joining Scheffler on two-under. Shane Lowry posted a solid one-under round to start the week, while Matt Fitzpatrick was left frustrated by a closing double bogey that dropped him back to level par.
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