Rory McIlroy plays his second shot at the 17th hole during the first round of the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club on August 17, 2023. | Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
McIlroy holds a share of the lead at the BMW Championship, but he would not be tied at the top if not for his miraculous shot at the 17th.
Rory McIlroy faced a precarious position on the 17th hole at Olympia Fields.
He pulled his tee shot left of the fairway, with a set of trees between him and the green.
Saving par on this difficult par-4 looked like a tall task. Not only did the trees obstruct his line, but his ball sat down in the whispy, wet, and thick rough that lines the fairways of this magnificent major championship venue.
Facing few options, McIlroy decided to hit a low 7-iron through the trees.
“It was a bit of a hit and a hope,” McIlroy explained after his round. “Just trying to thread that needle and hit it straight at the 17 [on the television tower]. Yeah, it was just one of those, it was either sort of chip it out or try to take it on, and it’s only Thursday, I thought, what the heck, I’ll take it on and see what happens.”
He struck the punch shot beautifully as it caromed off the top of the front left bunker and hurried towards the back of the green.
His ball came to rest a few feet beyond the putting surface, but it proved to be no problem for McIlroy.
He chipped it in from there for a birdie three.
“I rode my luck a little bit,” McIlroy admitted afterward. “I got decent lies in the rough, and from there, I was able to get a club on the ball and control my distance okay.”
McIlroy went on to card a 5-under 65 and holds a share of the lead with Brian Harman after day one at the BMW Championship.
Yet, despite his terrific round, McIlroy hit only three fairways. Usually a strength of his, his driver was all over the map.
Luckily for him, the course did not play as tricky as it has historically.
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy reacts after chipping in for a birdie on the 17th hole at Olympia Fields Country Club on August 17, 2023.
The PGA Tour suspended play for two hours early in the day due to thunderstorms in the Chicago area. The course received almost a half-inch of rain, forcing the tour to implement preferred lies for a fifth straight round.
Olympia Fields was saturated, and the world’s best players took advantage of the benign conditions.
“With the golf course being so soft, it’s almost an advantage to be playing out of the rough going into some of these greens because you know the ball will not spin,” McIlroy reasoned.
“I’m not saying I was trying to aim for the rough. But on many of the tee shots, I was being super aggressive because I knew in the back of my mind I would not be penalized for it.”
At the 2020 BMW Championship, Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson sat at 4-under through 72 holes at Olympia Fields. Rahm went on to win in a playoff.
Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Jon Rahm celebrates after making a birdie putt on the first playoff hole at the 2020 BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club on August 30, 2020.
The 2020 BMW tied that year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in having the highest final score during the 2019-20 season.
“The golf course is certainly not playing the way it played in 2020,” McIlroy said. “Hopefully, with the wind and the sun, the golf course starts to firm up a little bit and starts to play a bit more like how I think it should.”
The weather forecast for the rest of this year’s BMW Championship calls for sunny and breezy conditions, making the course more challenging as the weekend wears on.
Players will not have the luxury of soft greens, so finding fairways will be imperative.
Yet, thanks to the moisture, McIlroy was not penalized all day for his misses off the tee Thursday. He made zero bogeys, joining Collin Morikawa as the only two players to have bogey-free rounds.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
