In
2012 we had to wait until the BMW Championship in early September for
a leader board with the star quality which start Friday in contention
for the second World Golf Championship of 2013, it is the sort of
leader board which the World Golf Championships were created to
provide and Thursday at Doral did not disappoint. The
leading 15 players are covered by 2 shots with 6 players tied for
10th on 4-under including the defending champion Justin
Rose, WGC-HSBC Champions winner Ian Poulter, WGC-Bridgestone
Invitational winner Keegan Bradley and Dustin Johnson. 4 players are
tied for 6th place on 5-under including Steve Stricker,
Hunter Mahan, Peter Hanson and Phil Mickelson, 3 of which have
previously claimed at least one WGC title, and then there are 5
players tied for the lead on 6-under. The Masters champion Bubba
Watson, former Players champion Sergio Garcia, 2010 US Open champion
Graeme McDowell, Freddie Jacobson and the 16-time WGC champion Tiger
Woods all share the lead after a day full of birdies in calm
conditions on the Blue Monster course.
Tiger
Woods won convincingly in the star group of the day beating Luke
Donald by 4 shots and Rory McIlroy by 7 on a day which saw the World
Number One struggle again, but I will get to Rory later, for now
let's focus on the World Number Two. Woods has won three times at
Doral and the performance on Thursday was up there with the best he
has displayed in the last 5 years, making 9 birdies and 3 bogeys in a
round of 66, and it may have been 10 birdies except for a narrow miss
on his final hole. There
are still questions over what Tiger will show up from day to day
though, 10 years ago we could have said with some certainty that an
opening 66 and sharing the lead meant it was curtains for the rest,
the dominant World Number One would have gone on to win with some
ease, but things are very different now. Firstly, Woods is not the
awe-inspiring, dominant figure that he was either in personality or
with his game, he makes mistakes at crucial times and his putting is
nowhere near what it was 10 years ago. Secondly, the fields are
immeasurably deeper in 2013 than they were in 2003, the top of the
leader board is full of Major, WGC and Players champions and the
leading 15 players being covered by 2 shots on a course with so much
water means one mistake can see the leader come back to the pack and
this pack will devour you. Nobody is in awe of Tiger any more.
Now
let's discuss Rory McIlroy.
I
am his biggest fan outside his family and close friends, and indeed
one of my close friends is one of his close friends but we don't know
each other and haven't yet met. I have praised him for his
outstanding play and his achievements to date have been remarkable. I
first saw him as an amateur at the 2007 Open Championship at
Carnoustie. I attended the Friday and saw him play one of the most
breathtaking bunker shots I have ever seen in person at the short par
3 eighth hole, he has gone on to achieve so much at such a young age,
from his first pro-win at the Dubai Desert Classic, to his breakout
win at Quail Hollow and then his Masters meltdown followed by his two
dominant Major wins at Congressional and Kiawah Island. What Rory has
achieved and the way he has carried himself in the 5 years he has
been a professional is simply stunning. BUT.
Yes,
there is a BUT. You knew there would be.
This
is the most difficult stretch of his career, I would use the word
crisis because that is what I believe it to be.
Sure,
McIlroy has always shown a fallibility at times, missing cuts at the
moment you wouldn't expect and then coming out and winning with a 62
in the final round. But this is the toughest period of his short but
successful career. He missed the cut by a long way in Abu Dhabi, he
crashed out in the first round at the WGC-Accenture Match Play
Championship and then there was the débâcle of the Honda. His
apology was sincere and honest, that is Rory, what you see is what
you get. And he has been more than open about the swing problems he
his working so hard to overcome, but Thursday at Doral was more
evidence that the World Number One may be in for the hardest year of
his career so far.
His
first 13 holes included 6 bogeys, 1 birdie, an eagle and 5 pars and
only birdies at the 7th and 8th kept the
Ulsterman in reach of the chasing pack on the first day, he will need
a 67 at worst if he is to be in contention over the weekend with the
way the scoring is going in Miami. The most worrying aspect of the
round for McIlroy must surely be the driving, he has always been a
great driver of the golf ball with prodigious length and accuracy,
highlighted at the 2011 Masters (for the first three days), 2011 US
Open and 2012 PGA Championship, but on Thursday at Doral he drove it
as bad as I have ever seen him drive. He hit just 21% of the fairways
on a course where missing the fairway can be disastrous. But to be
honest if you only hit 21% of the fairways on any course on the major
tours of the world then there is just no way you can compete,
especially when the opposition are making birdie after birdie on a
day with virtually no wind.
At
the start of the week I felt Rory would bounce back and may well win,
but after day one's 73 and more important than the score he made his
performance convinces me that there is absolutely no chance of
McIlroy walking away as the champion on Sunday night.
Day
Two live televised coverage begins at 2pm ET on GOLF CHANNEL in the
US and at 7pm ET on SKY SPORTS 3 in the UK.
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