HAMILTON – As the featured group walked down the fairway on the 399-yard first hole – its 10th after starting on the back nine at Hamilton Golf and Country Club – the three players were all within a few clubs’ length of each other for a couple of hundred yards anyway.
The first one to drop back was Nick Taylor, the Abbotsford B.C. golfer who is the defending champion at the RBC Canadian Open. He hit wood rather than driver off the tee, mindful of the traps that guard the landing areas near where his driver would likely fly. He pulled it a bit and ended up in the rough near the bunkers anyway, but was left with a manageable wedge to get on the green 140 yards away on Thursday.
He eventually made his par.
Next was Taylor Pendrith, the talented big hitter from Richmond Hill, Ont., who earned his first Tour win earlier this month at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He also elected to lay back. His drive was in good shape, but he still needed a decent iron to attack the green that was 175 yards out. He tugged it and had to get up and down from off the green to save his par.
Well down the length of the hole, watching all this, was the third member of the group, Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy.
Faced with the same choices off the tee, the four-time major winner pulled out his driver and smashed it, as he can do like few others who have ever picked up a golf club.
His tee shot easily cleared the bunkers his playing partners were concerned about, kept flying, got a forward kick from a downslope and nestled in the rough, just 59 yards from the pin, and 80 and 110 yards past Taylor and Pendrith, respectively.
From there McIlroy slid an easy wedge under his golf ball, skipped it to four feet and rolled in the birdie putt, to get him to red numbers for the first time on the day.
It’s no secret that McIlroy can hit the golf ball further and straighter than almost anyone who has ever tried – his 317-yard average driving distance is first on the PGA Tour so far this season and is a six-yard improvement on his tour-best 311 from last season – but it’s still jarring to see it in person.
“Yeah, it’s impressive,” says Pendrith. “… I feel like he didn’t, for his standards, probably didn’t drive it great today. Probably didn’t feel like he drove it great. But he hits it hard, yeah. The first driver we hit on 11, I was like five (yards) past him and that was it for the rest of the day.”
It’s all part of McIlroy’s total package. The 35-year-old has 26 PGA Tour wins to go with his four major titles. His talent is like fine art: hard to define, but obvious to anyone who is paying attention.
“Look, I’ve said it a few times, and I never want to speak out of turn about other players,” said Tommy Fleetwood, McIlroy’s Ryder Cup teammate and the runner up to Taylor last year. “(But) I still believe from everything that I’ve experienced since I’ve been playing that Rory is the best of our generation. I still believe that.”
And he’s more than just that. McIlroy is a not-so-reluctant star.
He took on the role as the tour’s spokesman and players’ advocate during the on-going battle with LIV Golf over the direction of the professional game, a role that he’s stepped back from recently.
He’s a frank, patient interview subject and is perfectly comfortable in the spotlight.
Add it up – the talent, the charisma and the track record – and there’s not much doubt about his status as one of golf’s great stars, which is why having him as part of the Canadian Open field as a two-time champion, including at Hamilton when the tournament was last held here in 2019, is such a coup for the event.
It’s no secret that the best outcome for the tournament organizers this week would be having McIlroy win his third Canadian Open, increasingly the likelihood that he would return to defend next season when the tournament shifts to the reconfigured north course at TPC Osprey Valley in Caledon, Ont.
It helps that he’s a fan favourite. “One of the main reasons I love coming back here is because of that atmosphere that’s created when we’re out there to play,” McIlroy said. “And playing with two Canadians today was, it was exactly what I expected, but for a Thursday morning at 7:40 or whatever we teed off, there was a lot of people out there. It was great to see.”
But McIlroy’s popularity starts with his talent, and his primary talent is being able to attack golf courses the way most others can’t because of his unique ability to generate speed with his swing and deliver it to the golf ball.
It’s his superpower. The trick is to use it wisely.
“Yeah, I mean, I think when you’re the one doing it you don’t really take any notice of it,” he said when I asked him if he takes his ability to drive it miles and still be able to find it most of the time. “Yeah, I know that it’s a weapon and I know that I — but at the same time I have to use it intelligently. I can’t just go and swing driver everywhere, especially on a golf course like this where there’s quite a lot of trouble. So pick and choose my spots where I can, but then when I am able to hit good tee shots, yeah, I know that that gives me a big advantage.”
It certainly played out that way. After his birdie on the first, he nearly drove the green the 324-yard, par-4 fifth and got up-and-down for another birdie, then had just 126 yards left on the 442-yard, par-4 seventh and converted from seven feet. He hit an 8-iron to six feet on the 207-yard par-3 eighth and made that too. He could have easily been one better after a 324-yard drive on the par-5 fifth left him just 196 to the pin. He flushed his iron, and gave it a full twirl, as his ball lasered towards the flag. But his power undid him that time as he ended up 70 feet past the pin and three-putted, settling for par.
It was a tidy round, largely mistake free, save or the shot he launched into a hospitality area on the 17th hole, his eighth, which gave him another chance to mingle with his Canadian fans.
“I obviously hit it into the hospitality and some guy yelled out, ‘you need a wrist band to get in here’. So that was pretty funny,” said McIlroy, who carded a 4-under 66.
In all, no harm done. The effort leaves McIlroy in a perfect spot, well within touch of leader David Skinns at eight under, but with the luxury of easing into the tournament.
For all his abilities and how well he’s honed them, the only question McIlroy ever faces is why the win totals are larger, the triumphs more routine. It’s a tough position to be in – so good that winning is the only real measure of success.
But there’s a determination around McIlroy. He said this week that he regrets getting so deeply involved in golf’s power struggles. He’s been circumspect about his personal life after filing for divorce from his wife earlier this month, but it’s not hard to imagine some finality around such a significant life event could leave more mental energy for the task at hand. McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship the same weekend the papers were served.
He said on Wednesday that he didn’t think the off-course challenges had affected his game, but allowed after his round that he welcomes a smaller menu of responsibilities.
“Yeah, I think when all of us are able to focus purely on the golf again that would be welcomed by everyone,” he said.
For all his talent, the clock is ticking if McIlroy wants to avoid being remembered as the golfing superhero who fell short of delivering the goods. He won his four majors in four years from 2011 and 2014, but only has a long list of close calls since.
He’s got two more chances to break that streak left this season – the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July.
Another good finish in Canada could be the spark McIlroy needs to let his talent set golf on fire one more time.