What happened to Rory McIlroy at The Genesis Invitational 2024 on Friday? Golfer’s first-round outing explored

Rory McIlroy's struggles on the PGA Tour continued at this week's Genesis Invitational. He was out of form at the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished in the T64 position. He continued to struggle during the first round of the Genesis Invitational on Thursday, February 15.

McIlroy had a smooth start in the opening round of the Signature event, but struggled on the back nine. He carded a birdie on the first hole of the opening round on Thursday, followed by another birdie on the fifth. On the 10th, he added another birdie, but as the game went on, he struggled terribly to make another one. On the 12th hole, a par-4, he made his first bogey of the day.

However, the actual trouble was on the 15th and 16th holes. McIlroy made a double bogey on the 15th hole and then on the 16th, followed by a birdie on the 17th and a bogey again on the 18th. His game on the last four holes resulted in him settling for a score of 3 over 74.

Rory McIlroy finished in a tie for 64th place after playing 18 holes in the first round. He finished in a tie with Seamus Power and Adam Schenk with a score of three over par.

The Genesis Invitational is a 36-hole PGA Tour event, indicating only the top 50 golfers on the leaderboard after the second round will qualify for the third round. Rory McIlroy will have to play some good golf on Friday to qualify for the weekend rounds.

This week, Tiger Woods also returned to compete in professional tournaments but he too had trouble with his game. However, Woods finished ahead of McIlroy on the leaderboard following the first round.

With a round of 1-over par 72, Woods finished in a tie for 49th place with Chase Johnson, Ben Griffin, Chris Kirk, Cameron Young, Sam Ryder, Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar, Adam Scott, Sahith Theegala and Taylor Montgomery.

Max Homa, who was the runner-up last year, also struggled in the opening round of The Genesis Invitational. He shot a 2-over 73 and finished in a tie for 60th place.

When will Rory McIlroy tee off at The Genesis Invitational 2024?

Rory McIlroy will tee off for the second round of The Genesis Invitational 2024 in a group with Wyndham Clark and Max Homa at 12:25 p.m. ET. The group will tee off on the first hole on Friday, February 16.

Nick Dunlap will kickstart the second round of The Genesis Invitational on Friday at 10:20 a.m. ET with Grayson Murray followed by Will Zalatoris and his group members, Matt Kuchar and Sam Ryder, who will tee off at 10:32 a.m. ET.

Here are the second-round tee times of The Genesis Invitational (all-time in ET):

10:20 am - Nick Dunlap, Grayson Murray
10:32 am - Will Zalatoris, Matt Kuchar, Sam Ryder
10:44 am - Luke List, J.J. Spaun, Kevin Yu
10:56 am - Jason Day, Tony Finau, Brendon Todd1
1:08 am - Lee Hodges, Brian Harman, Hideki Matsuyama1
1:20 am - Sepp Straka, Si Woo Kim, Andrew Putnam
11:32 am - Rickie Fowler, Mackenzie Hughes, Patrick Rodgers
11:44 am - Taylor Moore, Kurt Kitayama, Eric Cole
12:01 pm - Sahith Theegala, Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood
12:13 pm - Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler
12:25 pm - Wyndham Clark, Rory McIlroy, Max Homa
12:27 pm - Adam Scott, Alex Smalley, Taylor Montgomery
12:49 pm - Nicolai Hojgaard, Chase Johnson
1:01 pm - Charley Hoffman, Beau Hossler, Ben Griffin
1:13 pm - Lucas Glover, Byeong Hun An, Adam Schenk
1:25 pm - Emiliano Grillo, Russell Henley, Sungjae Im
1:42 pm - Keegan Bradley, Tom Hoge, Harris English
1:54 pm - Chris Kirk, Corey Conners, J.T. Poston
2:06 pm - Adam Svensson, Seamus Power, Denny McCarthy
2:18 pm - Cam Davis, Adam Hadwin, Cameron Young
2:30 pm - Nick Taylor, Viktor Hovland, Sam Burns
2:42 pm - Tom Kim, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth
2:54 pm - Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland
3:06 pm - Ludvig Aberg, Nick Hardy, Christiaan Bezuidenhout