LOS ANGELES — The first three holes Thursday looked miserable for Rory McIlroy.
But roughly eight hours after he first teed off, McIlroy didn’t hesitate.
“The rain,” McIlroy said instantly when asked which part of the round he preferred. The second stretch, though completely dry, was surprisingly much more difficult.
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Whether it was the uncharacteristic rain that battered players in the morning and sent the event into a three-hour delay, or the 20-plus mph wind gusts that whipped through Riviera Country Club, McIlroy appeared to handle both with very little issue.
He posted a 5-under 66 to open the Genesis Invitational, which gave him a share of the lead as he hit the clubhouse. Aaron Rai eventually passed him with a birdie late Thursday right before play was suspended for the day due to darkness.
“I’ve started to just really enjoy this style of golf,” McIlroy said. “If you had asked me 10 years ago, I didn’t enjoy these conditions, but it’s been a shift in a mindset and maybe just a continuation of trying to build upon the skill set that I have. Then, when it does get to conditions like this, I’m a lot more prepared.
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“I wouldn’t say I enjoy them, but I can certainly handle them better.”
McIlroy birdied twice in his first three holes before the rain delay hit, and then he birdied his first one out of the break, seemingly unbothered by the hours-long gap in his round. He easily saved his par plenty of times when things could have fallen apart on him, like when he had to chip from the putting surface at No. 6, and he spun it back close enough for an easy par.
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McIlroy nearly went bogey-free Thursday. He slipped at the par-3 16th when he pulled his tee shot well left and short of the green. That was perhaps the one time all day when he looked frustrated as he slammed the top of his iron onto the small, white toy Genesis car serving as the tee marker twice on his way off the box.
But McIlroy birdied the short par-5 17th right afterward to make up for it to get back into a share of the lead before walking off the course for good.
Rai, who has won once on Tour in his career, got to 6-under for the day and made back-to-back birdies before play ended through 16 holes. He’ll have two holes to complete Friday before starting the second round. Jacob Bridgeman, in his first round at the Genesis Invitational, joined McIlroy at 5-under.
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Scottie Scheffler, uncharacteristically, struggled. The top-ranked golfer in the world made two bogeys and a double to make the turn at 4-over, and he bogeyed the 10th before his round was called. His 5-over mark put him in a tie for last on the leaderboard.
The rough conditions Thursday appear to be a one-day issue. The rain will be gone the rest of the weekend, according to forecasts, and the wind will die down significantly, if not altogether.
“This course is going to play very different I think the next three days … just score-ability with the wind being down,” said Collin Morikawa, who carded a 3-under playing alongside McIlroy. “So we’ll see some low scores over the next 54 holes.”
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While that should open the door for the rest of the field — including Scheffler, who always seems to find a way to make a charge in time for the final round no matter what happens to him Thursday — McIlroy has the early advantage in his second Tour stop of the season.