Rory McIlroy makes encouraging start in season opener in California

Such is the world of a golfer who travels all over it.

Starting on the back nine in mild early-morning conditions, McIlroy dropped an early shot at the 13th, but as the mercury climbed so the scoring improved, and he made birdies at the 15th, 18th, first, fifth and eighth.

The Englishman recently acquired a new driver, and said on the pgatour.com website: ‘This is a golf course where you have to drive it well and if you do drive it well round here you set up a lot of birdie chances.

“I thought it was not an easy course, but my tee shots, my iron shots, my putting, everything just went really well”, Park said through a translator. Steele had a few good results toward the end of last season, took a short break, started practicing and liked how his game felt. “It seems like any time I come back to the PGA Tour in February, guys have played eight or 10 events and I’m trying to play catch up”.

Justin Rose was the leading Briton on five under, in a share of sixth position. “It’s a great event and I’m obviously very happy to be here”.

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Third-ranked Rory McIlroy, still leading the European Tour’s Race to Dubai with six weeks remaining in the campaign, launches his bid for a 2015-16 US PGA Tour crown on Thursday. He posted five birdies against a single bogey, with his putter ultimately costing him a number of strokes.

‘It’s definitely better – better from tee to green than I was at the Tour Championship a couple of weeks ago, so it’s definitely a step in the right direction, ‘ McIlroy said. “I converted a few, but I’ll need to hole a few more”. Coming off a slightly disappointing season in which he won twice but never contended in the majors, McIlroy was vexed by the greens in his first competitive round here, missing birdie putts from inside 10 feet at the second and third holes, and from just outside 10 feet at the fourth.

This week: Frys.com Open, Thursday through Sunday, Silverado Country Club North Course, Napa, California.

After both carded solid opening rounds, there’s hope that they’ll be pushing the top of the leaderboard for the next three.

“That’s the sort of travel that you have to do to be a worldwide player”, McIlroy said Wednesday.