Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy is coming off a tough pill to swallow at the U.S. Open, but appears to have put it behind him at the Travelers Championship.
Rory McIlroy enters the Travelers Championship in Connecticut as one of the favorites. That’s despite knowing how difficult it must be to get over the loss at the 2023 U.S. Open last week.
Clearly, the four-time major champion was able to move on and focus on the task at hand. During Thursday’s round at the Travelers, he posted a beautiful ace, sinking a hole in one on the 214-yard par-3 8th.
Shockingly, this is McIlroy’s first career hole in one on the PGA Tour, according to PGA Tour Communications. It took 3,253 par-3’s played to nail it.
The shot moved him to 1-under for the tournament midway through his round.
McIlroy wasn’t done there either. He nearly holed out from a fairway bunker on the par-4 9th. He would go on to sink the birdie to move to 2-under. Despite the solid play thus far, he is still trailing Keegan Bradley, who posted a fantastic round of 62 to lead at 8-under.
Nevertheless, fans online can hardly contain themselves following the ace.
McIlroy hole in 1!
— VegasCrushers (@VegasCrushers) June 22, 2023
First hole in one in person… Rory McIlroy! LFG
— TKS (@shawt203) June 22, 2023
It’s hard to believe that he has never dunked one before. Then again, hitting a hole in one is likely one of the hardest things to do in all of sports.
It appears to be a solid bounce back after the crushing defeat at Los Angeles Country Club. McIlroy and Wyndham Clark battled it out Sunday for the U.S. Open. Clark simply played too well and despite battling, McIlroy came up on stroke short.
He will look for his fifth major next month at the Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
