On the golfing stage, Rory McIlroy plays Kevin Durant to Tiger Woods’s Kobe Bryant. But the first round of the Players Championship was nothing like the first-round N.B.A. playoff series between Durant’s Thunder and
Rory McIlroy was one over after the first round of the Players Championship.
Fans on Thursday could behold every shot by McIlroy or Woods, but not both. The golfers, who came here with their games headed in opposite directions, teed off at the same time but on different sides of T.P.C. Sawgrass, Woods at No. 1 and McIlroy at No. 10.
At each tee box, the air was thick with anticipation. What would McIlroy do for an encore in his first competitive appearance after playing the best round of his professional career, a sizzling 10-under-par 62 at Quail Hollow that propelled him to his first PGA Tour victory?
And how would Woods, who missed the cut at Quail Hollow, rebound from his second-round 79, which was his worst score as a professional in a regular PGA Tour event?
Woods’s opening tee shot settled in a bed of pine straw far left of the fairway, and his closing tee shot — a whistling 5-wood — caught the wind and landed in the water. Those two shots, the awful and the unlucky, told the story of his swing but not of his score.
Woods, the 2001 champion, scrambled for a two-under 70, coming within a missed 27-foot par putt at 18 of posting his first bogey-free round in 13 competitive rounds here. Asked if he needed a good round to boost his confidence, Woods, the world’s No. 1 player, said, “Absolutely.”
He added: “I’ve played six competitive rounds in seven months. It’s one of those things where it takes time to get into the rhythm of competing. It takes tournaments.”
The rust in Woods’s game was most glaring on the seventh tee, when his hips got ahead of his arms and he hit his tee shot 190 yards, barely catching the front ribbon of fairway on the 442-yard par 4. If he had had a baseball bat in his hands instead of a 3-wood, the infield fly rule would have come into play.
“I hit it straight in the air and I could probably catch it,” said Woods, who then hit a 5-wood and scrambled to make par.
Asked when he last used two woods on a par-4, Woods said, “Last week.” He laughed and quipped: “I wanted to have a full 5-wood in there. I wanted the angle.”
Woods hit 9 of 14 fairways, as did McIlroy, who carded a 73. After playing the final six holes at Quail Hollow in five under, McIlroy played his first six holes Thursday in one-under par.
So much for being invincible, which is how McIlroy said he felt on Sunday on Quail Hollow’s back nine. If his play then was magical, how would he describe Thursday’s round?
“Not so magical,” McIlroy said with a weary smile. “I found it quite tough to get anything going.”
He hit his first seven greens in regulation. The difference was that the approach shots that landed inside 10 feet Sunday were stopping outside 25 feet, leaving him with tricky reads.
“I struggled to read the Bermuda greens,” said McIlroy, who had 31 putts.
The story of McIlroy’s day was summed up on the par-5 ninth, his last hole. His tee shot missed the fairway, his second shot ricocheted off a tree into a bunker, and his next shot sailed over the green and he got up and down to save par.
McIlroy grew up as a big fan of Woods. “He set the benchmarks so high,” McIlroy said, “and we’re just trying to get to that point. You know, he’s inspired so many young players over the world.”
Woods’s gallery was larger, but those following McIlroy were more effusive. They wished him a belated happy birthday — he turned 21 on Tuesday — and congratulated him on his Quail Hollow victory.
McIlroy’s caddie organized a birthday party for him that was attended by 50 players, over a third of the field. McIlroy said he was touched by the turnout and by the praise he had received from veterans.
“The most important thing to me, if they say I’m a good guy off the golf course, then I know that I’m doing the right things,” McIlroy said. “It’s just nice to play some good golf now and again, as well.”
After signing his scorecard and answering questions from the news media, McIlroy signed autographs for a few minutes for fans, many of them children, who had been chirping his name like songbirds.
After signing his scorecard and answering questions from the news media, Woods walked past a group of autograph seekers calling out his name and disappeared into the night. Sun shine in the rain
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