Rory McIlroy ($11,900) was the most expensive player on DraftKings this week and the strong favorite to win the event on DraftKings Sportsbook, opening at +450 while no other player was at under +1400. The start of the tournament has not gone well for Rory, though, leaving many people wondering, “What’s wrong with Rory?” Let’s take a look at what’s going on at TPC Toronto.
McIlroy had a pair of bogeys in his first eight holes on Thursday in Round 1 before catching fire on the turn, dropping three straight birdies to get under par and quiet any concerns. However, when he got to the end of the round, he slipped up with back-to-back bogeys to finish the day at +1.
Here’s what he had to say after Round 1:
As Rory noted, it was his first round with a new driver, which will definitely get plenty of attention as he gets ready for next week’s U.S. Open.
He knew he would need to go lower to make the weekend on Friday, but that isn’t the way things unfolded. Rory made a quad-bogey eight on the par-4 fifth hole after having to abandon a lost ball. He bogeyed the ninth hole as well and was all the way up to +6 for the tournament when he made the turn, which put him in 149th place out of the 153 players in the field. After nine holes, he was a whopping 18 strokes behind leader Cameron Champ.
In the PGA TOUR $700K Summer Sand Trap, Rory was the golfer with the highest ownership. He was in a massive 33.25% of entries, while only one other golfer (Corey Conners) had more than 20% ownership.
Rory seems very unlikely to make the cut and will instead likely head to Pennsylvania to get in more work at Oakmont Country Club before next week’s U.S. Open.
McIlroy came into this week with plenty in his favor, already logging eight top-25 finishes, five top-10 finishes, and three wins in his nine starts this season before this week. His wins have come at big events against strong fields. He won a Signature Event at the AT&T Pebble Beach, claimed his second-career win at TPC Sawgrass at THE PLAYERS, and completed his career grand slam with a win at the Masters.
Since his big win at Augusta, he finished T12 at the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry, T7 at the Truist Championship, and a disappointing T47 at the PGA Championship. Barring a spectucalar back-nine comeback, this will be his first missed cut of the season.
He will look to bounce back next week at the third major championship of the year. He is currently +850 to win the U.S. Open on DraftKings, with the second-shortest odds behind only Scottie Scheffler.
He’ll need to get his new driver figured out and his game tuned up if he wants to bounce back and contend next week.
