Rory McIlroy had already discussed the ratings crisis facing the PGA Tour before teeing off at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, so he was in no mood to expound on his comments after his opening-round 66 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course on Thursday.
“I’m concerned about myself,” McIlroy said when asked if the future of the Tour weighs on him.
Of course, the irony in that statement is that the state of McIlroy’s game and the immediate health of the PGA Tour are closely intertwined.
Golf is a sport with few needle-movers. Outside of Tiger Woods, McIlroy is the sport’s biggest name. When he plays in tournaments, people watch. When he contends, even more people watch.
McIlroy’s antidote to golf’s ratings fog was simple: high-level competition between the best players on iconic venues should equal eyeballs.
After a first month of the season with limited appearances from its stars, the PGA Tour needed McIlroy and others to deliver compelling golf this week along the California coast.
McIlroy has, so far, delivered with Saturday’s bogey-free 65 in wet, cold, and gusty conditions putting him just one shot off the pace set by 54-hole leader Sepp Straka.
The four-time major champion began the day six shots behind Straka. But as the winds whipped across iconic Pebble Beach, McIlroy elevated his game and rose up the leaderboard as others stumbled.
He birdied three of his first five holes before the weather arrived as he reached the sixth hole. From that point forward, McIlroy altered his game plan to give himself the best chance to go low and be in a position to win on Sunday.
“I said to Harry going up 6, I said, let’s just try to chip it around for the rest of the day,” McIlroy said after the round. “Taking a club more, two clubs more and just try to chip it in there, take spin off it, keep under the wind. I did that really well today. Depending on what the conditions are tomorrow, if I have to do it again, I feel pretty comfortable doing it.”
There was the 9 iron at no. 8 that he stuck to 8 feet before pouring in the birdie putt. Then came a string of six straight pars, including saucy par saves at 10 and 11.
The weather lightened up as McIlroy’s round reached its conclusion, and that’s when the Northern Irishman hit the gas.
He stuffed a wedge to two feet for birdie on 15 and drained a 26-foot putt for birdie on 16 before closing with a final birdie on the par-5 18th to get in the house at 15-under.
“I played well. I didn’t make any mistakes,” McIlroy said. “One of the things I really want to do this year is try to limit my mistakes and play bogey-free. Three of my last four rounds have been that way, last round in Dubai, first round here and now this round. Just really try to limit the mistakes and play smart golf and be a little more like Scottie Scheffler.”
A win on Sunday would be McIlroy’s first win in the state of California since the 2015 WGC-Match Play at Harding Park. It would also make McIlroy just the third golfer in the last 30 years to win 27 times on the PGA Tour and win four or more majors. The other names? Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
McIlroy and the rest of the PGA Tour’s elite (minus the injured Xander Schauffele) arrived at Pebble Beach needing to give the Tour an injection of life to awaken from its early-season slumber.
Iconic Pebble Beach and blustery conditions provided the ideal backdrop for the first real drama of the season.
McIlroy, Shane Lowry (65), Justin Rose (68) and Tom Kim (68) all did their part in pursuit of Straka, who rebounded from three consecutive bogeys to recapture the outright lead with a closing birdie on 18.
Sunday’s leaderboard will be filled with big names looking to hunt down Straka on one of the PGA Tour’s most iconic courses.
But all eyes will be on McIlroy, whose classy play in spicy conditions on Saturday has him primed to add win no. 27 to his resume and provide the PGA Tour with the jolt of life it was hoping to receive at Pebble Beach.