There was a changing of the guard Thursday at the PGA Championship.
For the first time since Tiger Woods stormed to his Masters victory in 1997, the world’s most famous golfer wasn’t the most intriguing player during the opening round of a major. That honor belonged to Rory McIlroy, the 25-year-old world No. 1 coming off back-to-back wins and seeking his fourth major in three years.
While Tiger was plodding to a poor round, Rory was looking like the Tiger of old. He shot a 66 that was Tiger-esque in its ordinariness. It was a great score that put him one off the lead, yet it felt like he left at least four or five shots on the course. He made it look easy, like Tiger used to. Rory had pinpoint precision with the driver, dialed-in irons and putts that either dropped in the cup or burned the edges. The quality of each shot was an inevitability. Thew few holes Rory didn’t put himself in birdie position felt like an anomaly.
Conversely, the few times Tiger managed to get himself in birdie position felt the same. The 14-time major champion had to grind for his +3. Watching the wall-to-wall Tiger coverage that’s the hallmark of weekdays at major tournaments never felt so inconsequential. When you flipped on the TV or fired up the Internet stream, it was to check Rory’s score. When Rory’s interview was live on TNT, you turned down the volume to hear what he’d say. When you looked at Friday tee times, his was the first name you looked for.
No comments:
Post a Comment