{"id":599767,"date":"2026-08-21T02:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599767\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T02:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:52:10","slug":"mcilroy-enjoys-return-to-form-at-bmw-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599767\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy enjoys return to form at BMW Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy got the improved display he had demanded from himself with a fine six-under-par opening round for a share of the lead at the BMW Championship in St Louis, where Scottie Scheffler made a poor start.<\/p>\n

After labouring to an eight-over finish at last week’s St Jude Championship, while Scheffler coasted to an impressive victory, world number two McIlroy had admitted just signs of a positive display again at Bellerive would ‘feel like a win\u2019.<\/p>\n

It has been a run of uninspiring performances from the back-to-back Masters champion, who had returned to action in Memphis for the first time since he tied for 40th at The Open.<\/p>\n

McIlroy, though, showed signs of getting back into his groove as part of the early afternoon wave, with birdies at the fourth and then on eight to turn at two under.<\/p>\n

A fine tee shot on the par-three 13th then left the Holywood golfer to roll in a seven-foot putt and he picked up another shot following a lengthy drive on the 492-yard 15th.<\/p>\n

McIlroy \u2013 sitting 13th in the play-off standings, so assured of making to the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship \u2013 continued his momentum to finish with successive birdies and sign for a welcome 64.<\/p>\n

FULL LEADERBOARD<\/a><\/p>\n

McIlroy revealed a bit of “good work” with swing coach Michael Bannon and caddie Harry Diamond after returning home from Memphis had helped him rediscover his touch.<\/p>\n

“I felt at least like I got myself back going in the right direction, and what I wanted to do with my swing, but still you never know when you turn up here,” McIlroy said on the Golf Channel.<\/p>\n

“This golf course sets up a lot better for me than Memphis did last week. You can miss it a little bit off the tee, and the playing corridors are a lot wider, so you can get away with it, which I needed to get away with it a couple of times today.<\/p>\n

“But this set-up suits my game a little bit better, and I definitely feel a little bit more comfortable on this golf course than I did last week.”<\/p>\n

World number one Scheffler had been in fine form last week with a final round of 66 to claim his first win since January.<\/p>\n

Scheffler was looking to defending his title from last year’s 15-under victory at Caves Valley, Maryland \u2013 but was soon slumped at the other end of the leaderboard after a run of four bogeys through the opening seven holes.<\/p>\n

After recovering a stroke before heading into the turn, Scheffler then dropped a shot on the 10th.<\/p>\n

Two more birdies around a run of pars helped steady the ship to leave Scheffler at two over, with only three of the field of 50 behind him.<\/p>\n

American pair Gary Woodland \u2013 who slotted in a superb 99-yard eagle on 11 \u2013 and Wyndham Clark, having made birdie on five of his last six holes, are both at six under with McIlroy.<\/p>\n

JJ Spaun, another former US Open champion, looked set to be clear on his own before a bogey at the 18th saw him also in a tie for the lead along with late finisher Chris Gotterup.<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick finished with two birdies to sit at five under with Japan\u2019s Ryo Hisatsune, while his brother Alex is in a group a shot back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy got the improved display he had demanded from himself with a fine six-under-par opening round for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-599767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}