Jimenez shines on record-breaking 707th European Tour start

You can never predict a historic round, but Rory McIlroy was dressed for the occasion. His bold fashion belied one of the strengths that allowed him to shatter the course record at the most iconic course in his homeland. His mock turtleneck and pants were white as snow. A pink belt accented the outfit, as did a pink stripe across his back. His hat, a lighter shade of the same color, sat atop curly hair that showed hints of highlights. “The confidence I had, and the cockiness I had at 16, sometimes I think I have to rediscover that a little bit,� McIlroy recent told TheOpen.com. Throughout his career, McIlroy has announced himself with assaults on par. His 61 at Royal Portrush during the 2005 North of Ireland Amateur was the first display of that skill. It was a special round that proved the phenom from Holywood was as good as advertised. He’s gone on to win 16 times on the PGA TOUR, including four majors, this year’s PLAYERS Championship and the 2016 FedExCup. Any adult who’s dealt with disappointment can relate to his yearning for the innocence of youth, though. Returning to Royal Portrush for this week’s Open Championship gives him the opportunity to do that. McIlroy has a sterling recent resume in The Open. He has four consecutive top-5s, including his win in 2014 (he missed his title defense with an injury). His 69.0 scoring average since 2014 is at least a half-stroke lower than anyone else. Lowest score in relation to par at The Open since 2014: Words like “jaw-dropping� and “unreal� were used to describe McIlroy’s incredible round at Portrush. Even the best professionals from Northern Ireland had never come close to matching the precocious 16-year-old’s score. Padraig Harrington had held Portrush’s course record for years with a 65. It had only been lowered by a stroke before McIlroy shot a back-nine 28 during the qualifying rounds for the 2005 North of Ireland Championship. “Whenever I think about Royal Portrush and about links golf and my development, I always think about that round of golf,� McIlroy told TheOpen.com. “There are not many golf rounds where I remember every shot, but for that round I do.� A similar round isn’t likely this week in the final major of the season. Royal Portrush’s Dunluce Links was toughened before hosting its first Open Championship since 1951, with two new holes (the par-5 seventh and par-4 eighth) that required a routing adjustment. Thus, McIlroy will be seeking a new course record to go along with the one he set 14 years earlier. Like many special rounds, the one in 2005 started inauspiciously. He missed a short birdie putt on the first hole. Then he hit a 6-iron onto the green of the second hole and two-putted for birdie. He had to wait four holes for his next birdie, though. He finished the front nine with another two-putt birdie after reaching the par-5 ninth with a wedge, making the turn in 3-under 33. He eagled the 10th and added another birdie at the par-3 11th. People began streaming onto the course to catch a peek at history. Gary McNeil, Royal Portrush’s head pro, was getting updates back in the pro shop. McIlroy’s longtime swing coach, Michael Bannon, thought it was a joke when he received his first report of McIlroy’s magical round. “No one can shoot 61 around Royal Portrush,� he thought. McIlroy, recognizing the magnitude of the putt, fist-pumped when he holed his putt on No. 11, even though he responded sarcastically when he saw a player in the group ahead give a similar reaction on the same hole. After making two consecutive pars, McIlroy birdied the final five holes, including the long, treacherous par-3 known as “Calamity Corner.� He showed his maturity by stepping away from the crowds during a long wait on the 17th tee, using the time to collect his thoughts. He admits he was just trying to two-putt the final hole, but his 20-footer fell for the perfect ending. “It felt normal to me,� McIlroy told TheOpen.com. I had that cockiness and thought this was what I was supposed to do. It is only when time goes on that I realize these things are special and you should savor them. One of his playing partners that day, Stephen Crowe, was particularly taken by McIlroy’s finish. “He didn’t take his foot off the pedal, he didn’t miss a shot the last two holes,� Crowe told NationalClubGolfer.com. “He hit driver and a long iron to the par-5 17th. He always hit it long, even for the size of him; he only put on muscle after he turned pro and he was always aggressive. He wouldn’t shy away from a shot and he had the belief that he was going to pull it off. “The old last was a tough tee shot with lots of bunkers, but he stayed aggressive, found the fairway and hit an 8-iron into the middle of the green and then holed about a 20-footer. “That was the most impressive thing, how he kept things going. Lots of us wouldn’t have had the mindset to shoot that sort of score but he did.� McIlroy has compared that round to his final-round 62 at Quail Hollow in 2010, another unthinkable score that netted him his first PGA TOUR win. Five of his 16 PGA TOUR titles have been won with a final-round score of 65 or lower. He shot a final-round 61 to win this year’s RBC Canadian Open and earned his first FedExCup with a closing 64 at the 2016 TOUR Championship. He’s the only player other than Tiger Woods to win multiple majors by eight or more shots. He won his first major, the 2011 U.S. Open, with the lowest 72-hole score in that championship’s history. His record-setting round at Royal Portrush gave an early glimpse into his uncanny ability to go low. “There was always a feeling in Northern Ireland that we had a very big talent in Holywood, but it was only from age 12, 13 or 14 that we really started to hear about him,� BBC reporter Stephen Watson told TheOpen.com. “He started to break record after record after record, was on TV now and again and so that was how we first heard of him.� Earlier that year, McIlroy had become the youngest winner of the West of Ireland Championship and the Irish Closed Championship. His round at Royal Portrush only raised those expectations. News traveled quickly throughout the tiny town of Portrush. The crowds swelled as word spread. McIlroy’s round occurred two days before the start of the 2005 Open Championship. The golf world was concentrated in St. Andrews, but reports of McIlroy’s round made its way across the Irish Sea. Darren Clarke, who plays out of Portrush, met McIlroy years earlier and gave the prodigy his phone number so he was available for advice. “He was just different� than the typical teenager, Clarke said. When Clarke walked off St. Andrews’ famous 18th green after his practice round, one of the first queries from the assembled press was about McIlroy’s round. It’s not often that a top-20 player gets asked about an amateur, but that illustrates the significance of the score. “We said, ‘Did you hear what Rory did in the North?’� recalls Irish journalist Brian Keogh. “He was taken aback and we were all amazed at such a low score.� Clarke sent a congratulatory text to McIlroy. Graeme McDowell said that round changed his perception of his younger countryman. “You hear about the next great thing. ‘We’ve got this kid, he’s playing at plus-7 (handicap) and blah, blah, blah,’� McDowell said. “Then he shot 61 in the first round of qualifying for the North of Ireland and I’m like, ‘Really? OK. Hold on. Now I have to pay a little more attention to this.’ “That was probably the first time that I realized we had something pretty special on our hands.� Fourteen years later, that 61 remains a touchstone for McIlroy. When he won the RBC Canadian Open last month, he acknowledged feeling the same way as he did in 2005. “It’s almost like you’re out of your own body and looking at yourself play,� he explained. “… If I could bottle that feeling and take it with me week to week, I would. Sort of comes and goes. “Just a matter of being confident with your game and everything sort of falling into place.� Now McIlroy returns home, back to Royal Portrush, hoping it all falls into place again. This time, the stakes – just like the lean teenager who has grown into one of the world’s best golfers – are much bigger.

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THE OVERVIEW By Cameron Morfit, PGATOUR.COM Equipment issues. Kidney stones. A Ryder Cup hangover. Awaiting the birth of his second child, a son, in December. Life seemed to catch up to Patrick Reed last season. He came down from his electrifying Singles victory over Rory McIlroy, one of the most indelible moments in golf in 2016, and last season failed to win a tournament for the first time since he started on TOUR in 2013. At eighth in the Official World Golf Ranking when he traveled to Maui for the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, Reed dropped out of the top 20. Still, it was hardly a lost cause for the five-time winner Reed, 27, who showed signs of his old self with a tie for second at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, ensuring he would make his second Presidents Cup team. He advanced all the way to the TOUR Championship and finished 22nd in the FedExCup. And in compiling a 3-1-1 record, mostly with his usual wingman, Jordan Spieth, Reed was back to his old self for the U.S. Team’s easy victory at Liberty National.  If the positive trend continues, the 2018 season will see Reed and his wife, Justine, adjusting to being the parents of two, and Reed resuming his winning ways. These things take time, but such incandescent talent usually wins out in the end. Oh, and there’s always another opportunity to represent his country, this time in Paris. Imagine the kind of fun Reed could have in the City of Lights. BY THE NUMBERS How Patrick Reed ranked in Strokes Gained statistics during his last full season on the PGA TOUR. FEDEXCUP Current 2017-18 position: 95th Playoff appearances: 5 TOUR Championship appearances: 4 Best result: 3rd (2016) INSIGHTS FROM THE INSIDERS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Patrick Reed in 2018. TOUR INSIDER by Ben Everill Captain America is still searching for a way to bring his team golf mentality to individual tournaments and if he ever does succeed in that mission, he will be the ultimate force to be reckoned with. For now, he is still an enigma. Brilliant some rounds and weeks and not so much the next. Made a late-season push in 2017, almost winning the PGA Championship, but then was unable to really press it forward in three fall starts. The talent is clearly there, but will we see enough of it? Click here to follow Ben on Twitter FANTASY INSIDER by Rob Bolton When you look at the numbers, it’s confounding that he’s rarely inside the top 10 in ownership percentages in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. That he averages in the high 20s for starts per season does dilute his dispersion, but he’s as dependable as it gets. Instead, the upset is that Captain America didn’t crack the top 15 in this month-long series. Full-season gamers usually pull the trigger at some point around 10th overall since he’s averaged one top-25 in every two starts over the past four seasons. Click here to follow Rob on Twitter EQUIPMENT INSIDER by Jonathan Wall Reed has alternated drivers between Callaway’s Big Bertha Alpha 816 DDD and GBB Epic Sub Zero. Inserted a Titleist 716 T-MB 2-iron during the Wells Fargo Championship. Chose Callaway’s Chrome Soft ball because he picked up 10-12 yards with it off the tee. Callaway MB1 irons are the commercialized version of the company’s RAZR X Muscleback designed for better players who prefer workability over forgiveness. Click here to follow Jonathan on Twitter STYLE INSIDER by Greg Monteforte Reed takes a no-frills approach to his style. He tends to favor high contrast looks by frequently playing bright red off of black and navy blue. If I had to give Reed two New Year’s fashion resolutions, one would be to eliminate contrast by matching his belt to his trousers. The other would be to push the boundaries of his comfort zone by adding new colors to his wardrobe. Click here to follow Greg on Twitter

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