The McIlroy-Woods best-ball score: 59

    Thursday, September 6, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Too bad Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy weren’t paired in a best-ball match on Thursday.
    How good would a cool 59 have looked on the scoreboard?
    Woods and McIlroy combined for 16 birdies and an eagle in the first round at Crooked Stick Golf Club. McIlroy tied the course record with an 8-under-par 64. Woods fired a 65. (Nick Watney, the third man in the group, had to feel like he was in the B Flight. He scored 70 and is tied for 41st, in the back half of the 70-man field.)
    It was the show of shows, the top-ranked player of the moment and the best player of the young century throwing birdies around like they were going out of style, and right from the start, when each birdied their first hole, the par 4 10th. The only holes neither player scored under par on were the 12th, third, fourth, sixth and seventh. It must have been the heat down the stretch.
    “We just want to go out there and play the best we can, that’s my mindset,” McIlroy said. “I’m not going out with the intention of beating Tiger, I’m just there to try and shoot the best number possible.”
    What’s unusual to longtime Woods watchers is how chatty he is with McIlroy as they stroll down fairways. Woods spoke to next to nobody beyond saying, “Good shot,” for years and years. Now, here’s the new kid on the block, less programmed and more naturally talented than Woods was at 23, and Woods is chatting him up like Bob Hope did with Bing Crosby on the Road to Birdieland. And it’s not gamesmanship.
    McIlroy and Woods joust verbally, but only in fun. It’s clear there’s not only mutual respect, but something of admiration, McIlroy for what Woods has accomplished on the course, Woods for what McIlroy has done and will do down the line.
    “You watch him swing the club, watch him putt and play, he doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Woods said. “You can see in the next decade or so, as he really matures and understands some of the nuances of the game, he’s only going to get better, and that’s kind of fun to see.”
    The two are 13 years apart, Woods 36 and McIlroy 23. Speaking of generational rivals, Jack Nicklaus was 10 years younger than Arnold Palmer, and 10 years older than Tom Watson. Woods knows his time as the man to beat is drawing to a close, and that McIlroy may assume that role.
    “As Jack said numerous times, it was nice to be part of the cross-generational conversations with Gary (Player) and Arnold, a little bit of (Ben) Hogan maybe,” Woods said. “He was part of it with Watson and (Tom) Weiskopf and (Lee) Trevino and all those guys.
    “This is my 17th year old here. The guys I battled head-to-head are early 40s if not late 40s, like Vijay (Singh, 49) is. This is the next generation of guys.”
    One guy, the guy from Holywood, Northern Ireland, was 7 when he watched Woods win his first Masters. McIlroy seems to have adapted to playing with him.
    “Chevron was the first time I got to play with him, and I was a little nervous,” McIlroy said. “I still held my own; shot a couple under. I’ve always enjoyed playing with Tiger, and every time we’re paired up we seem to have a good time.”
    Thursday was better than good. It was sublime.

    McDowell’s lament

    Graeme McDowell appeared to have scored 6-under-par 66, but touched a leaf in a bunker on his takeaway swing on the ninth hole, his last of the day, and was slapped with a two-stroke penalty. That gave him a 1-over 6 on the hole and a total of 4-under 68, putting him four strokes behind the leaders entering the second round.
    McDowell, who called the penalty on himself, was not pleased with the rule.
    “It’s a harsh one,” McDowell said. “I know Carl Pettersson was a victim of a similar rule (in the PGA Championship). It’s a horrible rule.”
    The leaf was directly behind McDowell’s ball, which rolled into the bunker. McDowell and his caddie knew the leaf couldn’t be touched, but McDowell, in addressing the ball, still managed to brush it on his takeaway.
    “I didn’t improve my lie, and gained no advantage,” McDowell told a Golf Channel commentator. “It’s a disappointing way to end my round.”

    Around Crooked Stick

    It’s the first four-way tie of the season after one round on the PGA Tour, and the first quadruple tie in a Western since 2006, when eventual winner Trevor Immelman trailed Joe Ogilvie, Lucas Glover, Daniel Chopra and David McKenzie by three strokes. ... Seven players had bogey-free rounds on Thursday, including Webb Simpson and Bo Van Pelt en route to a quarter-share of the lead. Forty players broke 70, and 55 of the 70 starters were under par, a record percentage of 78.6. Only 10 players were over par, a record, surpassing the 22 who failed to match or surpass Dubsdread’s par of 71 in 2007, the first year of the limited playoff field. ... The Western Golf Association doesn’t announce attendance, but if there was one person at Crooked Stick on Thursday, there were 30,000, and a good many of those spectators were badged with weekly tickets, so there’s a week’s revenue in the WGA coffers even if Friday’s anticipated bad weather and early tee times scares some people off.
    – Tim Cronin