Star names Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, and Rory McIlroy struggle on round 1 of the at The Players Championship
The star-studded field of The Players Championship shockingly missed the world's top-ranked golfers from the top position on the leaderboard after the first round. The championship is at TPC Sawgrass Beach, Florida, where Chad Ramey topped the leaderboard with the conclusion of the opening round.
Ramey wrapped up with a total scoring deficit of eight, followed by Collin Morikawa, who is just one shot behind the leader.
Scottie Scheffler is the only one among the world's top 3 golfers to finish within the top 10 after Thursday's round. He is in sixth position with a score of under four.
Scheffler had a good start to the tournament with two consecutive birdies on the first two holes. He sank five birdies and a bogey to finish at 68.
Current World No.1 Jon Rahm is tied up at 32nd position alongside Kevin Streelman, Byeong Hun An, Brendon Todd, Trey Mullinax, Dylan Wu, Joseph Bramlett, Scott Piercy, Davis Riley, Alex Smalley, Scott Stallings, Cameron Young, Chesson Hadley, Ben Martin, Adam Hadwin, Mark Hubbard, and Nico Echavarria.
Rahm had a very slow start to the tournament, finishing the first round with only two birdies and a bogey. He finished at 71 to wrap up with a scoring deficit of 1.
However, the worst performance came from Rory McIlroy, who settled at T118 with a score of four. With four bogeys and a double bogey, the Northern Irish golfer ended up at 76.
"I feel like this is as penal" - Rory McIlroy on his performance at The Players Championship
Rory McIlroy was victimized by thick rough sand, pine straw, and sand traps, which resulted in him not scoring better on the leaderboard. Speaking about his performance, Rory said:
"I feel like this is as panel as I've seen it out of rough for a long time. I think you'd have to go back to when the tournament was played in May, when we were in Bermuda rough, for it to be penal as that. So yeah, you don't hit it on the fairway here, you're going to struggle."
It was a horrible day for Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship. However, he is optimistic and is looking forward to improving his performance in the upcoming round. McIlroy said:
"You’ve got the four par-5s which are very gettable, and you’ve got a few other holes, 4 and 12 specifically. So you’ve got six really gettable ones, that if you’re on your game, you should make birdies on those. So there’s still plenty of opportunities out there.”
Rory McIlroy started the tournament with a bogey on the first hole. He then again made a bogey on the third hole and a birdie on the fourth. He made a bogey on the ninth and a double bogey on the tenth. Speaking of the match, McIlroy went on to add:
"The three-putt on 16 was probably the one that sort of stopped any momentum. I hit a really good shot out of the pine straw there and didn’t capitalize on that, and making bogey on 1 and bogey on 3 sort of was tough to get it back from there.”