Rory McIlroy’s PGA Championship begins with ugly and inefficient first round

Rory McIlroy started his week at the PGA Championship saying he was “running out of patience” with his game. The four-time major winner operates under a different standard than almost every other golfer in the world, set by both himself and the media that covers him week to week. There immediate reaction to his 4-over 74 start at Baltusrol will not be kind. It will probably be an overreaction, as is often the case with Rory. But this was a shocking run and could not have been helpful for that patience Rory said was getting low.

A lot of late money had pushed Rory to the 7/1 favorite this week, and why not? This is the major the best suits his game and one he relishes. This course was a long par-70, on the softer side, and some target golf that should play right into his hands. It was so easy to see him just lighting it up and posting multiple mid-60s rounds to run away with his third PGA.

Now it’s hard to see him getting back into it. Rory is so talented that he can always make a big run back up the leaderboard and backdoor his way into a top 10. He has (hopefully) 54 holes left, but this first round left him a good nine shots off the pace set by Jimmy Walker.

The tee-to-green game was there again for Rory. Sure, there were a few drives that went wild and some iron shots that left one PGA.com announcer calling that part of his game “stinky.” But the stats did not really back that up -- he was still putting on a show with the driver and giving himself birdie chances.

The critics will usually point to Rory’s putter as the weakness of his game, but his wedges have been the biggest problem. The putting stats are not horrendous, save for around 10 feet and that was an area that killed him on Thursday. It started right out of the gate, too, with Rory blowing birdie opportunities from that distance on the first two holes. His entire first nine was that kind of inefficient march that’s among the most frustrating in golf and had to have him wanting to chuck his putter in a nearby body of water.

When it was all over, he lost about four strokes to the field with his putting, which is abominable. He also had no birdies on his card, which is startling for such a talent and at this event.

I’ll confess my unconditional love for McIlroy, but I still try to keep things realistic. Maybe you saw this kind of number coming but I sure as hell didn’t. Even if he has a poor putting round, he’s still able to stumble into a birdie or two, and especially at the dang PGA Championship.

Rory is the kind of player that we measure success in majors, and that pressure has probably played a part in that patience running low. There was the Saturday at Augusta playing alongside Jordan Spieth, which was the last round he went without a birdie. There was that missed cut at the U.S. Open, where he stormed out of Oakmont without talking to the press and then spent Sunday tweeting grenades at the USGA. And then there was Troon, where he got stuck on the wrong side of the draw and shattered his club in half during a Saturday 73.

Rory is still having a strong season, despite the lack of W’s and uneven major performances. That won’t quell the heat you’ll hear about his putter, his mental approach and attitude, his workout regimen, his tight shirts, and whatever else the diagnosis may be before he’s able to tee it up again on Friday.