Rory McIlroy starts FedEx Cup ugly, tumbles down leaderboard at The Barclays

It’s the start of the PGA Tour’s postseason, but the hottest golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy, was actually out of form in his first competitive round since that finish in the darkness at the PGA Championship. After tumbling down the early Barclays leaderboard with a first round 3-over 74, McIlroy said the sudden departure from the perfection of the past month was a result of “just not putting the adequate time into my game over the past week.” Right after winning his third straight tournament and second straight major, McIlroy departed Louisville for a few days of partying in New York. He then jetted over to England for an appearance at a Manchester United game, before bouncing back to New York for several Nike appearances with Tiger Woods and this week’s FedEx Cup opener.

McIlroy starts the postseason as No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings, so he’s safe to play all four events over the next month. But it wasn’t pretty at the start on Thursday morning, going off the back nine at Ridgewood Country Club and playing his first four holes in 3-over. The ugliest stretch came at the par-4 12th, where he bombed his drive right off the fairway and then made a mess up around the green.

The rough at Ridgewood is particularly brutal this week, perhaps the worst of the season on the PGA Tour. From 161 yards, Rory muscled one up to a greenside bunker. He admitted this summer his sand game is his one weak point right now, and he left his pop out of the greenside bunker short and in the rough surrounding the putting surface. McIlroy was sloppy with another wedge from that junk, knocking it well past the hole to finally get on the putting surface in four. The two-putt from there wrapped up the adventurous double bogey and Rory was promptly at the bottom of the leaderboard.

McIlroy made a bogey on his very next hole, a par-5 that he should always dominate given the way he drives the ball. That bogey at the 13th was largely the result of a layup attempt that leaked into that penal rough again. That led to another missed GIR when his third shot from the thick stuff airmailed into a bunker behind the green. It’s startling to see McIlroy get a 6 on a par-5, but that two-hole stretch made it apparent early that we weren’t in for the his usual Summer cruise. The 74 was his worst round since the U.S. Open in early June.

The Ulsterman has poured in birdies all summer, but he didn’t post a red number until his 14th hole of the day, which was a short, drivable par-4. It was looking like a 4-over round as he stood on the 9th green (his last hole), but Rory finally rolled one in to get a stroke back with his final putt of the day. The 32-foot putt mitigated some of the damage of the first round.

McIlroy is eight shots back from the morning wave leaders, Hunter Mahan, Charles Howell III, and Cameron Tringale, who all posted a 5-under 66. That’s a sizable margin but there’s no real reason for worry with McIlroy. While a sport’s postseason would normally be the more intense atmosphere, McIlroy has already accomplished far more than anything he can do over the next four weeks, and especially at this opener in New Jersey. So he said the regression was “inevitable” after taking the week off that he rightly deserved, but he was headed back out to “catch up on practice” he’d missed out on since his win at Valhalla. The safe assumption is he’ll be sharp again by the weekend and just fine for the rest of the playoffs.

Here’s the early leaderboard with the afternoon side of the draw just getting out on the course at The Barclays: