USPGA Championship: Rory McIlroy miles off the pace at Baltusrol after grief on the greens in woeful first round

RORY MCILROY somehow managed to avoid giving his putter the same treatment his three wood suffered when he snapped it in half at the Open.

Mind you, the way he was performing with the shortest club in the bag, he would probably have missed if he had tried to snap it over his knee!

McIlroy endured an atrocious day on the greens in the first round of the USPGA, and stumbled to a four over par 74.

He did not manage a single birdie, despite giving himself plenty of chances – he left most of them short of the hole, and when he did give a putt enough juice it never looked like finding the target.

It was the first time McIlroy has failed to post a single birdie since the first round of the Irish Open 15 months ago, when he missed the cut for the third year in a row.

He did manage to bounce back from that drought to win the same event this year.

And the world No 4 must be hoping the same thing will happen in the 2017 USPGA, because his hopes of a fifth Major here already appear to have vanished down the plughole.

McIlroy’s four over par start left him six behind playing partner Jason Day, and nine behind early pace-setter Jimmy Walker, who bagged six birdies in his 65 to prove it could be done.

The third member of the Ulsterman’s group, Open runner-up Phil Mickelson, rammed home that lesson as three birdies in the final seven holes saw him recover from the same mark as McIlroy and finish with a 71.

That seemed a shocking injustice given the way Mickelson sprayed the ball all over Baltursol for the first 11 holes. But McIlroy admitted he only had himself to blame.

He finished stone last among the 78 morning starters in the putting table – a scenario made even worse by the fact he took third place in the driving figures – and this was one case where the statistics definitely did not tell a lie.

McIlroy groaned: “Tee to green my games was fine, but I can’t remember the last time I struggled with my putting that badly.

“I just couldn’t get the pace of the greens – they looked a lot quicker than they were, which is why I left so many short of the hole.

“When I did give them enough of a rap I was able to make the three and four footers coming back, so I just need to be more assertive.

McIrloy appeared to have shut last year’s Irish Open flop out of his mind as he added: “I can’t remember the last time I failed to make a single birdie – I’ll be honest, it hurts when you suffer a shut-out like that.

“I had good chances on my first two holes and failed to convert either of them, and I honestly believe if I’d holed one of those two putts it would have been a different story.

“I know my game is good enough to create more than enough birdie opportunities to go low.

“Overall it was another frustrating day. Now I need to shoot somewhere in the mid-60s in the second round to get myself back in the tournament, and get some momentum for the weekend.”

It sounds good in theory, but there has been little in McIlroy’s form since he finished this year’s Irish Open in a blaze of glory to suggest he can deliver three low rounds over such a demanding course.

In fact his record in the Majors since he won this event for the second time two years ago – his fourth big title in less than three years – does not offer much encouragement.

He has not contended in any of the six Majors he has taken part in since the end of 2014, and it would take a remarkable tournaround to avoid this making it a less-than-magnificent seven.

Yet McIlroy came into this event apparently brimming with confidence, predicting Baltusrol was a course where he could “excel”.

To do that you have to make the most of the “easy holes” and McIlroy’s fortunes on the only two par fives summed up his shocker.

A terrific wedge shot from 113 yards left him barely four feet from the flag on the 649 yards 17th – and he somehow left his putt a few inches short of the hole.

And a poor chip from the front of the green on the long 18th left him a tricky 15 footer for birdie. You know the rest. The outcome would probably have been the same if he had been a lot closer.

McIlroy went on: “It was a tough day, and I clearly need to do quite a bit of work on the practice greens to get the pace of them.

“It is a mental thing rather than a problem with my stroke, and as long as I can convince myself to be more aggressive I can still get there. I haven’t won any of my Majors coming from behind, but that’s the challenge now.”