Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy off to Solid starts at Barclays
If Thursdays highly anticipated matchup between Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy was a heavyweight fight judges would have scored the round in favor of Woods who left Bethpage Black with a slight edge over the 23 year old after the first round of The Barclays.
Even though Woods finished the day at 3-under to McIlroy's 2-under, early on it looked like the current PGA Championship winner was going to run away and hide from the rest of the field, after he opened with four birdies in his first 8 holes and turned in 3-under 32.
Playing the role of aggressor from the first tee shot, McIlroy pulled driver on numerous occasions and took dead-aim at every pin. He certainly looked the part of a cocksure twentysomething coming off an eight-shot win two weeks prior at Kiawah Island.
But as quickly as the momentum seemed to swing in McIlroy's direction, it faded on the back nine with two closing bogeys over the final seven holes.
"It definitely could have been a few shots better," McIlroy said of his round. "But I'm happy with how I played."