BETHESDA, Md. — These bravura opening-round performances in major championships are becoming second nature for Rory McIlroy, the 22-year-old sensation from Holywood, Northern Ireland. At one with his golf game like a virtuoso musician with his instrument, McIlroy was brilliant on a gray Thursday at the United States Open, shooting a flawless round of 65 that was the best of the day by three strokes and the worst he could have shot.
This is the third time in the last four majors that McIlroy has either shared or held the lead after 18 holes, and the way he did it — while most of the field was struggling to survive the 7,475-yard Congressional Country Club layout — was most impressive.
“I’m starting to get used to these first rounds in majors,” said McIlroy, who is three strokes up on Y. E. Yang (68) and the Masters champion Charl Schwartzel. “I just need to keep it going. I have to back it up tomorrow and put myself in position for the weekend.”
Playing with a relaxed insouciance — as he did when he shot a 63 to lead the first round of last year’s British Open at St. Andrews and when he shot a 65 to share the first-round lead at this year’s Masters — McIlroy made it look easy. He hit 17 of 18 greens, never threatened to bogey a hole, and, though he hit only nine fairways, his misses were all playable.
The same could not be said for Phil Mickelson, who somehow salvaged a three-over-par 74 after hitting it everywhere but in the Congressional swimming pool. Mickelson hit his opening tee shot at the 10th hole into the water and made double bogey. At the 11th hole — the 494-yard par 4 that was the most difficult on the course — Mickelson chose to take a 2-iron off the tee. He hit his ball into the right rough, and had to hit a 3-wood just short of the green and get up and down for par.
In all, Mickelson hit five fairways and found himself up to his waist in the tall fescue a number of times. At the 14th, after launching his 2-iron somewhere left toward the Virginia line, he punched out of the jungle with his driver and made a pretty good bogey.
At the eighth hole, his ball went so far left off the tee that he played his second shot from a fairway bunker on the fifth. He hit his second into a greenside bunker at No. 8 and made an admirable bogey from there.
Sanguine would be the best way to describe Mickelson, once he cooled off enough to speak to a pool reporter after initially declining to be interviewed.
“This actually turned out to be a great day because I played horrific,” Mickelson said in what is the early leader in the clubhouse for quotation of the month. “To hit it where I did today and to walk away only three over? I’m still in it where if I get this thing turned around, shoot a good round tomorrow, I’ll be right back in it.”
The fact is, Mickelson is correct. Things can turn around quickly in major championships as even McIlroy has learned during his very brief professional career of three years.
Any of the 21 players under par after the first round have more than a mathematical chance. Consider Yang, who two years ago became the first golfer to catch and pass Tiger Woods on a Sunday after Woods held the 54-hole lead. He was not on any pre-tournament favorites lists.
Neither was Louis Oosthuizen before winning the British Open by seven strokes at the Old Course at St. Andrews last July. He was not on any lists this week either, but shot 69 with a birdie at the 18th hole and is looming. Ryan Palmer finds himself tied for fourth at 69 in his third United States Open appearance. Palmer, who lost in a playoff at the Byron Nelson, looked solid.
Sergio García, who is winless in majors after trying 47 times, also shot 69 and appears to be in good form.
And, of course, McIlroy has felt the sting of major turnarounds, following his 63 at St. Andrews with an 81 before bouncing back into a tie for third after a great weekend. He also tied for third in last year’s P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits. Then there was the back-nine meltdown at Augusta — where he had a one-stroke lead on the 10th tee, shot 43 on the back nine and finished tied for 15th after shooting 80.
If these incidents have left any scars on McIlroy, they are not visible. The greens at Congressional were showing some bruises, stressed as they were after last week’s heat wave and efforts to get them up to speed for the Open. But McIlroy was neither bruised nor stressed putting on them, flowing through his putting stroke like a kid.
“I don’t know if it says that I’ve just got a very short memory,” he said. “I don’t know. I took the experience from Augusta, and I learned a lot from it. But I feel like these good starts in the majors are very much down to my preparation and how I prepare for them.
“You can’t be thinking about what’s happened before; you’ve got to just be thinking about this week and how best you can prepare and how you can get yourself around the golf course.”
NOTES
The defending Open champion Graeme McDowell shot a 70 and is tied for 11th, not far off his first round at Pebble Beach, where he was tied for ninth after a 69. He is trying to become the first golfer since Curtis Strange in 1988-9 to win the Open back to back ... Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, started his first Open with pars at the difficult 10th and 11th holes and shot 36 going out and 38 coming home. He was tied for 62nd with a group that included the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, Luke Donald, No. 3 Martin Kaymer, Ryo Ishikawa of Japan, Jim Furyk, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan ...The 523-yard finishing hole at Congressional got a look at how far current golfers hit their drives. Australia’s Jason Day hit a pitching wedge for his second shot to the green. Ryan Palmer hit a 9-iron and Rory McIlroy an 8-iron.
