Rory McIlroy hasn’t hit his stride yet on the 2024 PGA Tour, and adversity hit him in the face in the first round of the Genesis Invitational on Thursday.
What started as a decent round turned into a disaster as he made three of his final four holes at Riviera Country Club with bogeys or worse. He made a birdie on the par-5 17th, but it wasn’t enough to salvage the day.
McIlroy started his round with a birdie on the first hole, then added another birdie on the par-4 fifth to finish with a 33. He was in contention late in the first day. He then got a little more momentum with another birdie on the par-4 10th, but things went awry from there.
The 24-time PGA Tour winner dropped a shot on the 12th and then felt bad. McIlroy made double bogey on the 15th and triple bogey on the par-3 16th.
Photo by Harry Howe/Getty Images
On the 15th par-4, I missed my tee shot wide. His second shot went just 164 yards and was even rougher. McIlroy then missed consecutive wedge shots before finally reaching the green and two-putting for a double.
The 16th was even worse for Northern Irishmen.
I hit my tee shot into the bunker in front of the green. McIlroy completely chunked his second shot and couldn’t get the sand out. He finally missed his third shot and made a 7-foot bogey.
Still, the four-time major champion made an explosive three-putt from there to win the triple.
McIlroy went from 2 under to 3 over in just two holes.
This week marks his second PGA Tour start of the year after finishing T66 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This finish was a surprise after a great performance on the season-opening DP World Tour.
He finished runner-up to Tommy Fleetwood at the Dubai Invitational and then won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic for the fourth time.
It’s strange that he goes back to America and has a setback. McIlroy will have to dig quite a hole this week after Thursday’s terrible result.
He is scheduled to tee off at 12:25 p.m. ET.
Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirls and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
