Belek — When Rory McIlroy finished his first round of the Turkish Airlines Open on Thursday, he seemed a happy man after shooting a bogey-free round of five-under par 67 at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course.
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After all, his ball-striking improved as the round progressed, and more importantly, his putting, which has been his bugbear the last few months, also appeared solid.
When McIlroy submitted his card, he was tied for the second place just one shot behind leader Chris Wood’s 66, but by the time he would have packed up his bags to leave the club, the leaderboard had changed dramatically.
First, it was Lee Westwood, finally playing like the Lee Westwood we all know. The Englishman was striking the ball brilliantly, almost holing out a couple of shots from the fairway, and despite missing a five-feet birdie putt on his last hole, he signed in for an eight-under par 64.
Great round of golf today from @WestwoodLee – A bogey free 64! #TurkishAirlinesOpen #LeeWestwood pic.twitter.com/iuFtkjggGO
— Golfing World (@GolfingWorld) October 29, 2015
But that wasn’t still the lowest round going. That honour belonged to 36-year-old South African Jaco van Zyl, who was just unstoppable after he drained a 60-footer putt for an eagle on the par-5 11st hole. Thereafter, he made a par on the 12th and 16th, and birdies on every other hole to play the back nine in seven-under par, and the full round in 11-under par 61.
Van Zyl’s round would have been a new course record, but for the fact that preferred lies were in play – an aftereffect of the 280mm rain that pured in Belek last week.
Van Zyl, who is ranked 51st in the Race to Dubai and 132nd in the world, said: “I made probably about a 60-foot putt on 11, looked over at my caddie, John, and said to him, “I can’t remember the last time we made a snake like that”.
“I’ve had lower scores, but obviously not on a calibre-golf course like this. Greens are really good but there’s a lot of grain around the greens. You hit fairways and greens, and it seems very easy. But as soon as you’re a little bit off, you’re going to get busy.
“It was really nice. Had a really good score and putting round. Hopefully we can continue.”
McIlroy, who is leading the Race to Dubai, looked anything but impressive in his opening nine, which is the back nine of the golf course. There are three par-5s on that stretch and the par totals to 37, but the Northern Irishman could only play it to one-under par, thanks to a chip-in birdie on his second hole, the 11th of the golf course.
He then had to play a left-handed chip-out after pulling his tee shot against a tree on the 18th hole – his ninth – but made a battling par, which just lifted his round on the back nine.
“I thought it was good. I felt like my game came together a lot more on our back nine, which is the front nine of this course,” said McIlroy.
Didn’t take long for @McIlroyRory to get going! https://t.co/8GNzYXkCUW
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 29, 2015
“I was sort of trying to find my rhythm a little bit for the first few holes and then I actually made a good par save on 18 which gave me some momentum going into the front nine. I hit a lot of quality shots on the front nine and gave myself a lot of looks and held some putts.”
Westwood was happy with his round, but said he needed to play equally well over the next few weeks in order to ensure that he stayed inside the top-50 of the world rankings. The Englishman is currently ranked 46th.
“It felt good. I aimed at the flag a lot and could have holed two or three shots out there with my irons,” said Westwood.
“I’ve had a feeling or an idea for what’s been wrong for a while. But you know, sometimes finding something that you can relate to on the range, working on that and being able to take it on to the golf course; I felt like I found that a little bit.
“Obviously, I want to play well and solidify my spot in the top-50 in the world. A good finish to the year will certainly give me confidence. I haven’t played very well this year at all, but it’s not been a completely disastrous year by any means. But I want next year to be better.”
