Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, fresh from a win on the European Tour, has overcome a sore knee and a double bogey to carve out a three-shot lead after the opening round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio.
Under the watchful eye of tournament host Jack Nicklaus, McIlroy on Thursday evoked memories of the legend with his nine-under-par 63, a round featuring two eagles and seven birdies with just the one double-bogey blemish.
It was good enough to push the former world No.1 three clear at the top of the leaderboard, creating the gap on Masters champion Bubba Watson, Chris Kirk and England’s Paul Casey who shared second after rounds of 66.
Americans Keegan Bradley, Michael Thompson and JB Holmes shared fifth at five-under.
World No.1 Adam Scott, backing up from his win in Texas, put together a decent three-under 69 to be tied 11th but couldn’t keep up with playing partner McIlroy, who overcame tweaking his knee on the seventh hole.
Fellow Australian Aaron Baddeley played the back nine first in four-over 40 but was on fire on the front side, shooting a course record-equalling 29 with seven birdies to join Scott on three-under.
Scott showed no signs of a victory hangover when he birdied the second and third holes to jump out to a hot start but he was jolted back to reality when he power lipped out a three-foot par putt on the fourth for bogey.
The Queenslander than birdied both front nine par-fives before dropping a brilliant 35-foot downhill curling birdie putt on the par-3 eighth to be just two off the morning lead.
But just as it appeared he was cruising, the 33-year-old played a terrible approach into the ninth, dunking his ball into a creek short of the green and eventually carding a double-bogey six.
“It was just a poor shot and it stopped my momentum and then nothing really dropped on the back side,” Scott said.
A birdie on the par-5 11th softened some of the pain but he couldn’t muster any more in the round as McIlroy surged ahead.
Jason Day, playing for the first time since the Masters in his return from a thumb injury and also playing with McIlroy and Scott, blew off the cobwebs with an even-par 72 on his home course to be tied 45th.
Marc Leishman and Greg Chalmers shot 71 to be tied 28th.
Matt Jones joined Day at even-par, Robert Allenby shot 73 but it was much tougher going for Steven Bowditch (75) and Stuart Appleby (77) who will face a tough test to make the cut.