Harrington Texas Title Hopes Fade

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Padraig Harrington carded three birdies in all during the first round of the Valero Texas Open, but finished four over par in the end after a double bogey and five bogeys left him signing for 76. A total of eight strokes off the joint leaders.

However he was not alone.

Phil Mickelson shot a 5-over 77 on Thursday in Texas to fall nine strokes back during the suspended first round. The 77 was Lefty's highest score since a 78 in August in the PGA Championship.

"I had been playing real well at home, so to come out and play like this is disappointing," Mickelson said. "Just didn't feel quite sharp."

In his previous two starts, Mickelson missed the cut in the Honda Classic and tied for 16th three weeks ago at Doral in the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. He made his only other Texas Open appearance in 1992, so long ago that the event was only his 11th professional start on the PGA TOUR.

Pat Perez and Danny Lee shot 4-under 68 to share the clubhouse lead and Andrew Loupe was 4 under with seven holes to play when darkness forced the suspension of play. The start was delayed 2 hours, 40 minutes because of fog, and 45 players were unable to finish the round.

Area resident Cameron Beckman, Puerto Rico Open winner Chesson Hadley, Will MacKenzie and Seung-Yul Noh shot 69, and Miguel Angel Carballo and Justin Hicks also were 3 under. Carballo had four left, and Hicks three.

Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar shot 70.

Defending champion Martin Laird opened with a 72, matching Valspar winner John Senden and Jeff Maggert, a winner last week in Mississippi in his Champions Tour debut.

Ernie Els shot 74, and former Texas star Jordan Spieth had a 75.

Area resident Jimmy Walker had a 76. He has a tour-high three victories this season, winning the Frys.com Open, Sony Open and Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Mickelson hit half of the greens in regulation on the Greg Norman-designed TPC San Antonio, bogeyed three of the four par 3s and closed with a double bogey on the par-4 ninth.

"I didn't putt well," said Mickelson, who had 17 putts on the second nine that he played in 4-over 40. "I had a couple of three-putts that hurt. Iron play wasn't great. I didn't drive it bad, until that last hole."

On the 462-yard ninth, his drive sailed so far right he hit a provisional. He didn't need it, but it took him three to find the green and he ended up three-putting, missing from 10 and 2 feet.

"Just blocked it," he said.

He also will play next week in the Houston Open before heading to Augusta National.

The fog kept temperatures in the 50s before it burned off and gave way to sun and readings in the 80s.

"This morning it was freezing, and I hit balls (on the practice range) in four layers of clothes," Perez said. "Now, I'm sweating."

One under after a bogey on the 15th, Perez finished with three birdies on putts from more than 10 feet -- including a 17-footer on the final hole.

Lee, the 2008 U.S. Amateur champion at Pinehurst No. 2, finished with consecutive birdies with putts inside 13 feet on the 17 and 18. He finished second three weeks ago in Puerto Rico.

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Rory Rounds Blue Monster

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Rory McIlroy was satisfied with his a showing in the weather-affected opening round of the WGC – Cadillac Championship, with the Northern Irishman handily placed just two shots off the pace. 

Starting on the tenth tee, McIlroy displayed no signs of a hangover from his play-off defeat in last week’s Honda Classic, flying out of the blocks with three birdies in his opening four holes over the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral, draining a 53 foot putt on the 13th hole. 

He dropped a shot at the next after finding the bunker, but regained it immediately with an eight foot birdie putt on the 15th before back-to-back bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes just before storms halted played for more than two hours. 

The former World Number One regrouped during the delay and resumed his round in the middle of the first fairway, duly birdieing it to move to two under par before lipping out with another birdie chance on the second hole from eight feet. 

With conditions proving tough, McIlroy bogeyed the fourth hole to sit on one under par through 14 holes of his round. With five players currently setting the pace on three under par, including clubhouse leader Harris English, McIlroy was rightly pleased with his efforts on the opening day. 

“I said I’d be happy with anything under par from this round and I’m still on course for that,” he said. “I’m happy with the way I played and I’d like to get something in the 60s.

“I played pretty good. It was tough out there though with the wind and the firm greens with the moisture on top. It was really skidding. So it was hard when we got back out to control the distance. You had to guess a little how much the ball would skip forward. I’ll get back out in the morning and play the last three and a half holes without as much wind and with better conditions.”

After finishing runner up twice already this season, the two-time Major Champion has plenty of cause for optimism over the next three days. 

“I'm playing well and I'm comfortable with my game,” he said. “I wasn't going to let one bad day last week derail the good path that I'm on. 

“I played well from the start again, and made four birdies quickly. Hopefully I will make a few more tomorrow.”

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McIlroy to Better Blue Monster

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Rory McIlroy is aiming to go one better at this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship after a second runner-up finish of 2014 last Sunday.

In three stroke-play events this season the Northern Irishman has finished second in Abu Dhabi, ninth in Dubai and was only beaten in a play-off at last week’s Honda Classic.

The two-time Major winner came to the final hole needing an eagle to win, and almost pulled it off after a magnificent five wood approach to six feet.

McIlroy missed the putt and was beaten by Russell Henley at the first extra hole, but the World Number Six chose to focus on the positives of being in contention again.

“[The five wood into 18] is right up there,” he said. “It's probably the best that I've hit under pressure. 

“I don't think I can think of any other ones where I've needed it and been able to pull it off like that. 

“Looking at last week as a whole, there are definitely a lot of positives to take. I think I was up there in putting in the statistical categories, I drove the ball really well. 

“I was just disappointed with how I played coming down the stretch; it obviously wasn't what I would have liked. 

“But plenty of positives - getting myself in position to win, it was my third stroke play event of the year, and third chance to win. 

“If you keep giving yourself those chances, then hopefully learn from the mistakes, then you're going to eventually walk through the door and win, and then when you get into the habit of it, it becomes a bit easier. 

“But I feel like my game is there to get into contention again this week and that's what I'll try and do.”

McIlroy admits that it can be difficult to train for the nerves of coming down the stretch in contention, but The Ryder Cup star feels more confident this week having competed at the top of the leaderboard regularly since winning the Australian Open at the end of 2013. 

“For me, there's no better way to prepare for that than to be in it,” he added. “I don't think by putting yourself under pressure in a practice session or even playing Monday games with people, it's not the same thing. 

“So it's just about putting yourself in that position week in, week out.

“I maybe just didn't make as many committed swings as I should have at some points during the back nine last week. 

“But I know that, and if I get myself into that position again this week, I'll try and do a better job of seeing my shots and making more committed swings. But I don't think there's anything that you can really do in practice that can replicate what you're feeling on the back nine on Sunday. 

“You're not going to win every event that you play, but if you can give yourself at least a chance going into Sunday, then that's all you can really ask of yourself. 

“Giving yourself a chance and getting yourself into contention is what I expect of myself, and everyone knows that I didn't do that enough last year at all, and I've started this year better because I've been in contention every time that I've teed it up. So I'm happy with that.”

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Rory Looking for Happy New Year

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Rory McIlroy's year began the year as the star attraction with music blaring and lasers flashing in a room at Abu Dhabi to celebrate the No. 1 player in golf joining Nike's stable. It ended last Sunday with a bogey on the ninth hole at Sherwood with hardly anyone watching.

An off season never looked more appealing to him.

"It's been a long season, a long stretch," McIlroy said after signing for a 70 to finish 11th in an 18-man field at the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge. "I'm excited to put the clubs down for a little bit, have a few weeks' rest and get after it at the start of the new year."

He won't have to worry about getting used to new equipment as he has spent the better part of nine months doing that.

A year ago, McIlroy was the No. 1 in golf and coming off another record win in a major -- an eight-shot victory in the PGA Championship - and added FedExCup Playoff wins and money titles on both sides of the Atlantic by closing his season with a win in Dubai.

Although it looked as if he would stay there for many years it only lasted three months.

There were equipment issues, a product of changing everything at once instead of slowly working the swoosh into his bag, as Tiger Woods did a decade earlier. He changed management companies, which ordinarily is a seamless transition unless the split is ugly.

As things stand McIlroy is scheduled to be in a courtroom in Ireland not long after the Ryder Cup next year. 

So yes, this is ugly.

According to reports in Irish newspapers, he split with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki at least twice, maybe three times. Which proved confusing as the Danish tennis star was at Sherwood all week, an ever-present smile as she followed him.

McIlroy, for all his brilliance inside the ropes, is refreshingly honest when it comes to his golf and often self-deprecating. He was talking earlier in the week about playing casual rounds with friends, noting that he had more of those days than in previous years.

"Had more weekends (off)," he said.

He has failed to make the cut five times, inlcuing Open Championship. Another was at The Honda Classic, where he walked off the course after 26 holes out of frustration, blaming it on his wisdom tooth.

He didn't win a tournament until his 24th start, two weeks ago at the Australian Open and so ends the year at No. 6 in the world.

"It's been the first year I've had to put up with scrutiny and criticism," McIlroy said. "You just have to believe in what you're doing and not let it get to you too much. I let it get to me a few times."

The toothache was one example of that. McIlroy conceded a week later at Doral that all the hype translated into more pressure he put on himself to perform, and he snapped. An honest answer. He said he would never do it again. So far, so good.

More than the golf was the inspection outside the ropes.

"All the other stuff," he said. "I don't care what people say about my golf. It's when people start digging into my personal life, that's where it starts to annoy you. Whether it's Caroline, the management, all that should that should be no consequence to how I play my golf."

That's a part of celebrity he still hasn't mastered.

Tiger Woods went through his first "slump" -- everything is relative when it comes to Woods -- at age 22 in his second full year as a pro. He won only two tournaments. He lost to Nick Price in a playoff at Sun City. He lost to Mark O'Meara in a 36-hole final at the World Match Play Championship. About the only off-course issue he faced was the GQ article that quoted him telling racial jokes.

"As far as battling a slump, that's just part of playing golf," Woods said. "You play golf long enough, you're going to go through it."

The great ones emerge. And the great ones don't stay in slumps for long.

McIlroy has headed to his Florida home to start his vacation. He'll eventually wind up in Melbourne to watch Wozniacki in the Australian Open, and then go to Dubai to start preparing for a new season that will begin in Abu Dhabi.

It's already shaping up as important season.

   

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Captain McGinley Backs McIlroy

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Europe's Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley says Rory McIlroy will bounce back from his recent poor run of results.

McIlroy missed the cut in last week's Open Championship at Muirfield, labelling his own play "brain dead" following an opening round of 79, three weeks after also missing the weekend in the Irish Open at Carton House.

The 24-year-old Northern Irishman won five times last year, including his second major by eight shots in the USPGA Championship, to finish top of the money list on both sides of the Atlantic.

But he has yet to record a win in 2013 since a controversial multi-million pound switch to Nike in January, also damaging his reputation by walking off the course during his defence of the Honda Classic and bending a club out of shape during the final round of the US Open last month.

McGinley, who will want a fully firing McIlroy at Gleneagles next year against the United States, told Standard Sport: "At 46 years of age, one of the lessons I've learned is that you have to know who you are and play to your strength, not your weakness.

"Looking back, when I was 24, I wish I got to know myself better. That would have helped my golf.

"Hopefully, Rory will get to know himself really well. Keep doing what works for him. Identify his package, making it stronger and stronger. Rory is not arrogant. He has a lot of common sense and is willing to listen. He will learn and I have no doubt he will come back."

McGinley also pointed to how McIlroy recovered from last year's Open disappointment at Royal Lytham, where he could only finish 60th.

He predicted that the Northern Irishman would target his defence of the year's final major, the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York next month, as the time to find his best.

"Everybody was saying Rory was playing rubbish (after Lytham)," added Dubliner McGinley. "A month later he went to the US PGA and won by eight."

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