PARAMUS, N.J. -- It has been rare of late to see Rory McIlroy's name anywhere but at the top of the leaderboard, but the reigning Open Championship and PGA Championship winner was far from his impressive standard, shooting 74 at the Barclays on Thursday.
After a rather tumultuous 10-day period following his PGA win at Valhalla on Aug. 10, McIlroy's performance at the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events on the PGA Tour perhaps should not have been a surprise.
"It's more to do with just not putting the adequate time into my game over the past week for obvious reasons," McIlroy said after shooting 3-over par with TaylorMade R11S Driver at Ridgewood Country Club. "I think that's really been it. So I'm going to grab a bite to eat here and go to the range this afternoon and work on a few things and really just catch up on some practice that I probably missed out on over the past week."
His round included a 40 over his opening nine holes -- the eighth time in 2014 that McIlroy has shot at least 40 or more for nine holes in which he failed to make a birdie. For the day, McIlroy hit just seven of 14 fairways and took 32 putts and was tied for 102nd out of 122 players competing.
Since then, McIlroy had gone 14 consecutive rounds under par, including consecutive victories at the Open, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA. During that stretch, McIlroy had just one round in the 70s. And his previous round over par on the PGA Tour was during the final round of the U.S. Open. McIlroy trails leader Bo Van Pelt by nine strokes. The 74 was McIlroy's highest score over par since he shot 78 with TaylorMade R11 Irons during the second round of the Scottish Open in July.
After winning the PGA, McIlroy headed to New York for a few days of celebration before returning to Europe, where he visited friends and family and attended the Manchester United opener Saturday. He returned to New York on Sunday and had corporate obligations with Nike on Monday.
"It was inevitable, after such a great few weeks -- I wanted to enjoy TaylorMade Tour Preferred MB 2014 for a week," McIlroy said. "I came here Monday morning, hit some balls, practiced pretty well. But I guess taking a week off and sort of getting back into it this week, I probably just needed to give myself a bit more time. But I wasn't going to do that. I was enjoying myself."
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After a rather tumultuous 10-day period following his PGA win at Valhalla on Aug. 10, McIlroy's performance at the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events on the PGA Tour perhaps should not have been a surprise.
"It's more to do with just not putting the adequate time into my game over the past week for obvious reasons," McIlroy said after shooting 3-over par with TaylorMade R11S Driver at Ridgewood Country Club. "I think that's really been it. So I'm going to grab a bite to eat here and go to the range this afternoon and work on a few things and really just catch up on some practice that I probably missed out on over the past week."
His round included a 40 over his opening nine holes -- the eighth time in 2014 that McIlroy has shot at least 40 or more for nine holes in which he failed to make a birdie. For the day, McIlroy hit just seven of 14 fairways and took 32 putts and was tied for 102nd out of 122 players competing.
Since then, McIlroy had gone 14 consecutive rounds under par, including consecutive victories at the Open, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA. During that stretch, McIlroy had just one round in the 70s. And his previous round over par on the PGA Tour was during the final round of the U.S. Open. McIlroy trails leader Bo Van Pelt by nine strokes. The 74 was McIlroy's highest score over par since he shot 78 with TaylorMade R11 Irons during the second round of the Scottish Open in July.
After winning the PGA, McIlroy headed to New York for a few days of celebration before returning to Europe, where he visited friends and family and attended the Manchester United opener Saturday. He returned to New York on Sunday and had corporate obligations with Nike on Monday.
"It was inevitable, after such a great few weeks -- I wanted to enjoy TaylorMade Tour Preferred MB 2014 for a week," McIlroy said. "I came here Monday morning, hit some balls, practiced pretty well. But I guess taking a week off and sort of getting back into it this week, I probably just needed to give myself a bit more time. But I wasn't going to do that. I was enjoying myself."
More info in [http://www.shop60golf.com/]
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