“If you’re four or five back, you still feel like you’re in it. Whoever wins the tournament is going to have to play great golf over the weekend but at least I’m in a position where great golf will get rewarded”.
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Martin Kaymer, Andy Sullivan, Marcus Frasier and Ian Poulter are leading the field into the second round at 6-under par, with Francisco Molinari trailing the leaders by one.
“I’m probably somewhere between third and fourth gear”, McIlroy said. “I had a good couple of days practice but still would like one more”. “I got enough practice out of the bunkers on the back nine”.
McIlroy and Willett were paired together in the final group.
They were tied for sixth, two shots behind the leaders at six-under-par 66 on the first day of the US$8 million event.
McIlroy and Willett are locked in a logjam at 4-under par alongside Branden Grace, Chris Wood, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Fabrizio ZanottiMiguel Angle Jiminez and Alejandro Canizares, so the battling stars have their work cut out for them today. It has played a little tricky out there with the wind conditions and the direction of the wind changing a little bit.
“The course is much, much softer than we’ve seen before, unfortunately in terms of what I prefer”.
“It’s what everyone wanted, it’s very close, ” Willett said.
“It’s a bit calmer in the morning and usually a bit cooler. I hit 17 greens in regulation and just two missed fairways. that’s pretty solid”. “We are in there with a shout and we keep putting some decent numbers up”, he added.
Both Kaymer and Poulter have not won anything this year and are hoping to turn it around this week.
Nonetheless, there was to be late drama as Willett made the most of an advantageous par-five at the last to chalk up a birdie and McIlroy did likewise, albeit via the rather unconventional route of the sandy bunkers.
“I’m not saying this is the worst that I’m going to shoot, but I’d have to play a lot worse than this to not move in the right direction I guess”.
“It might make them try a little harder, but I guess it can backfire if you’re trying too hard, as well”.
“The front nine, I was playing well and not making anything of it”, said Rose, who acknowledged his first-round 71 was beneficial in giving him an early start before the customary afternoon winds swept the Earth course.
Sullivan, one of four players tied for the lead at the start of the day, enjoyed a blemish-free round of 66. It could have been a much better round of golf.
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That first round featured five dropped shots on the last four holes and included a triple bogey on the 16th hole as he twice found the water. “So when I do that, I’m going to find myself with a trophy in my hand and that [the ranking] takes care of itself”.
