Rory McIlroy’s decision to leave the driver in his locker did not affect his ability to score as he carded six birdies around the narrow Delhi Golf Club but was let down by three bogeys in the opening round of the DP World India Championship.
The world No. 2 got off to an ideal start by chipping in from the fringe at his first hole, the 10th, but his difficulties began at No. 11, where he three-putted, before he failed to get up and down for back-to-back bogeys.
Despite the absence of the longest club in his bag, McIlroy had no problems birdieing the two par-5s to make the turn at 1 under, and he picked up three more shots over the next seven holes.
However, he bogeyed the 522-yard eighth to finish with a 3-under 69, five behind clubhouse leader Shane Lowry.
“Dog [driver] was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker. I was sort of thinking about it last night before I went to bed,” McIlroy said of his club selection in his postround interview. “Sometimes if you’re really conservative off a par-5 today, you might have like a 5-wood into the green, but I’m never going to hit driver. So I just thought I’ve got to 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron all the way through, and then I’ve got a 5-wood just in case I need to hit it for an approach shot on a par-5.”
McIlroy said the course was still “pretty tricky” despite the limited length needed off the tee.
“You’re just really trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to pick off birdies on the par-5s and maybe pick up a couple more,” he said.
Lowry, who rattled off eight birdies to take the lead, said the constant noise of Delhi traffic was much easier to handle than an abusive New York Ryder Cup crowd.
Playing with European captain Luke Donald and teammate Tommy Fleetwood, Lowry hit a hot streak with five successive birdies on the back nine against the background noise of the honks and horns of the capital’s incessant road network.
“We all had a great time and we all played pretty good, and I just rolled off a few more birdies than they did on the back nine,” Lowry said. “We could hear the horns from the road; it was not as off-putting as the Bethpage crowd.
“There was a little Ryder Cup chat out there, but at the end of the day, we are all professional golfers and ultimately we all want to beat each other, even though we are friends.”
Fleetwood and Donald both finished at 4 under.
