McIlroy drops explicit response to PGA | Golf News

Rory McIlroy’s mood flared after closing out his opening spherical with 4 consecutive bogeys, leaving him 4-over par.

The 37-year-old bogeyed the ultimate 4 holes of his spherical, including two more bogeys on the day against just two birdies total. After a disappointing spherical, he summed it up in a single phrase.

“S—,” he responded when requested by the moderator to describe his opening spherical.

“I started missing fairways,” said McIlroy, who was pressured to play his second shot out of the fescue on the seventh gap with a large gallery of followers wanting on.

“I missed the fairway right on 4, the fairway right on 6, the fairway right on 7, fairway right on 9. From there, it’s hard – you know, I didn’t have great angles either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky.

“I felt like I did okay. I made that birdie on 5 to get back to even-par after the tender bogey on 4, then I just received on that bogey practice at the end.”

McIlroy once again battled with his driving, an issue that dogged him at the Masters but one he ultimately managed to overcome. It appears, however, that his struggles off the tee are beginning to wear on him. “I’m just not driving the ball effectively enough. It’s been a downside all 12 months for the most half,” he said.

“Yeah, I’ve type of received, like I miss it proper, and then I need to strive to right it. And then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a little bit of back and forth that manner. So that’s fairly irritating, particularly when like I satisfaction myself on driving the ball effectively.

“I just need to try to figure it out. I honestly thought I’d figured it out. Coming in here, I hit it well on Sunday at Quail Hollow, and then hit it good at home on Monday. Then even — obviously I had to curtail the practice round Tuesday, but hit it decent yesterday.

“Just type of, once I get under the gun, it just looks as if it begins to go a little bit wayward on me.”

When questioned about whether the blister on his toe affected his play, McIlroy responded curtly, “No.”