Rory Mcilroy began protecting his title in the Truist Championship on Thursday with a first round with four sub-parpars.
The master champion fired a 66 with six birds in all and Bogeys in the 11th and 15th holes.
He was five strokes after the day of a leader, Keith Mitchell of America, who ended on Thursday at nine under.
Mitchell set the pace with a 61, its lowest result with 18 holes in PGA Tour.
The world No. 2 Mcilroy played along with Shane Lowry in Zurich Classic of New Orleans and is now competing as a defense champion in the Truist championship, previously called the Wells Fargo championship in front of next week’s PGA championship.
The Truist championship is taking place at the Cricket Philadelphia club in Pennsylvani than at the Quail Hollow club, where the PGA champion will be held next week.
Lowry is connected to the seventh after a round of 64.
Mcilroy became only the sixth player who has completed a Grand Slam career with his dramatic victory in masters last month. He is looking to build towards a sixth big win at the Championship PGA with another title win at this signing event this week.
“I don’t want to reduce this tournament and this championship, but for me, with everything that has happened in the last two weeks, it would always be a great week for me to see where my game and kind of refining some things were,” Mcilroy said.
“I still want to play well, and I still want to have a chance to win the tournament, but I will have a much better gauge where my game is going next week after these four days than I would have had if I hadn’t played or just spent the week at home. It is an important week for me.
“Hopefully within two weeks you are talking about me being a big champion six times instead of a big champion five times.”
Who will win the Truist Championship? Look all week live in Sky Sports. Early coverage begins on Friday from 4pm at Sky Sports Golf, ahead of full coverage from 7pm. Get Sky Sports or Transs with now.
