TROON, Scotland – There won’t be a repeat of last month’s instant classic.
Right now, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau just want to make sure they’re not gone in an instant.
In what’s shaping up as the most difficult first round of The Open in more than a decade, McIlroy and DeChambeau both suffered through miserable opening rounds at Royal Troon that left them more focused on the cut than the contenders.
For McIlroy, his Thursday 78 was his worst score in a major since his opening 79 in the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush. Just like that, he was 10 shots back as he sought an end to his decade-long major-less drought.
At the end of a brief scrum with reporters, McIlroy was asked if, like in ’19, he believed he was too far back. He paused for five seconds and scrunched his face to consider the question.
Finally, he said, “All I need to focus on is tomorrow and try to make the cut.”
His task — which grew to a 13-shot deficit by the end of the day — was more made difficult by a few uncharacteristic mistakes from a player who had been in an effortless groove with his swing. Even par through his first seven holes, McIlroy first unraveled on the 120-yard Postage Stamp, where he missed right, left his second shot in the deep bunker and walked off with double bogey. Then he compounded his error by missing miles right off the tee on 11, out of bounds, and recording another double. He added three more bogeys to come home in 40.
So, what went wrong?
With Troon’s front nine playing predominantly into the wind and out of the right – a significant departure from the early-week practice rounds out of a different direction – McIlroy second-guessed himself off the tee because of the additional options. That indecision led to him hitting just half of the fairways, which in turn saw him hit just seven greens total – his worst output of the season.
“I have to do a better job in these conditions,” McIlroy said, “and I need to go out there and play better and try to shoot something under par and at least be here for the weekend, if not try to put myself up the leaderboard a bit more and feeling like I have half a chance.”
DeChambeau was already pondering how to fix his longstanding Open woes.
Just once in six previous Open starts had he finished inside the top 30, and now he has work to do Friday just to give himself a chance to improve on those subpar results. DeChambeau went out in 42 and needed a late eagle just to get in the house with a 5-over 76.
“I’m proud of the way I persevered today,” he said. “Shoot, man, I could have thrown in the towel after nine and been like, I’m going home. But no, I’ve got a chance tomorrow. I’m excited for the challenge. If I have some putts go in and hit some shots the way I know how to, and figure out this equipment stuff, I’ll be good.”
Over the course of the round, DeChambeau hit just five drivers, with Troon’s tight corridors and penal bunkers taking the most feared weapon in golf out of his hands. On the back-nine holes where he did unleash the big stick, he gave himself an outsized advantage: On 16, he slugged a 358-yarder over the burn, leading to an eagle, while his playing partners laid up with a hybrid and 4-iron; and then on the home hole, he bashed a drive that went 405 yards, finishing just shy of the bunkers short of the green.
Still, afterward, he turned to a familiar culprit to address the ongoing issue: his equipment.
DeChambeau has raised eyebrows this year with his bulged-face driver and 3D-printed irons, technology that, he believed, was allowing him to reach an even higher ceiling. But after the opening round, he was already exploring the possibility of using different equipment in future years when Open conditions are this firm, and the weather is this cool and damp – irons that had less curvature, or perhaps another golf ball.
“I’m going to go figure it out. It’s something equipment-related,” he said. “I’m not at 190 ball speed (this week), so particularly when I’m hitting driver or 3-wood, those clubs are built for around that speed, so colder, firmer conditions the golf ball is not compressing as much. It’s probably something along those lines. I felt like I was swinging it somewhat OK, just the ball wasn’t coming off in that window that I normally see, so it was a weird day.”
DeChambeau’s continued struggles overseas are reminiscent of early-career Phil Mickelson, who stubbornly refused to adapt his aerial game that made him so successful in the States to the unique demands of links golf. It wasn’t until he and short-game guru Dave Pelz linked up in 2004 that he began to experiment with different strategies and shots – long “chip” shots with a variety of clubs – that were designed to get the ball on the ground quicker. That year he posted by far his best Open finish, and then he stormed to the title at Muirfield in 2013 in what he called the most satisfying performance of his career because it represented how complete he’d become.
DeChambeau isn’t there yet, even as the ancient links continue to befuddle him.
In competition he plays almost exclusively a hard draw, but with the unexpected hurting hook wind on Thursday, he hit balls that were “knuckling” and difficult to control. “I should have just cut the ball,” he lamented. But with a heavy wind pumping and the rain spitting and the bogeys piling up … well, he wasn’t quite ready to make that on-the-fly adjustment.
Flustered and frustrated and flummoxed by the vagaries of links golf, McIlroy and DeChambeau looked and sounded nothing like the two protagonists who staged a duel for the ages over the final hour at the U.S. Open. Barring a stunning turnaround, it’ll almost certainly be someone else’s turn in the spotlight over the weekend at Troon.
For now, they’re just hoping to be around for it.