{"id":53777,"date":"2026-08-21T08:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/53777\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:21:09","slug":"rory-mcilroy-shares-early-lead-at-e17-1-million-bmw-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/53777\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy shares early lead at \u20ac17.1 million BMW Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy bounced back from a disappointing St Jude Championship with a superb six-under-par 64 to share the lead\"Rory<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy produced the improved display he had identified as his objective with a commanding six-under-par opening round to share top spot at the BMW Championship in St Louis, while Scottie Scheffler suffered a challenging beginning.<\/p>\n

After a deflating eight-over finish at the preceding week’s St Jude Championship, where Scheffler sailed to triumph, world number two McIlroy<\/a> had admitted that simply showing flashes of encouraging form at Bellerive would ‘feel like a win’.<\/p>\n

The back-to-back Masters champion had been delivering underwhelming performances since returning to action in Memphis, his first appearance since finishing tied for 40th at The Open.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, McIlroy showed indications of recapturing his touch during the early afternoon session, recording birdies at the fourth and eighth holes to reach the turn at two under.<\/p>\n

A superb tee shot at the par-three 13th positioned the Holywood man to convert a seven-foot putt, before he claimed another shot following a thunderous drive on the 492-yard 15th.<\/p>\n

McIlroy \u2013 sitting 13th in the play-off standings, securing his place in the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship \u2013 sustained his positive momentum to finish with consecutive birdies and register a pleasing 64. The golfer attributed some “good work” with swing coach Michael Bannon and caddie Harry Diamond after returning home from Memphis for helping him rediscover his rhythm.<\/p>\n

“I felt at least like I got myself back going in the right direction, and what I wanted to do with my swing, but still you never know when you turn up here,” McIlroy told the Golf<\/a> Channel.<\/p>\n

“This golf course sets up a lot better for me than Memphis did last week. You can miss it a little bit off the tee, and the playing corridors are a lot wider, so you can get away with it, which I needed to get away with it a couple of times today.<\/p>\n

“But this set-up suits my game a little bit better, and I definitely feel a little bit more comfortable on this golf course than I did last week.”<\/p>\n

World number one Scheffler<\/a> had been displaying outstanding form the week before, posting a closing round of 66 to claim his first win since January.<\/p>\n

Scheffler had been looking to retain his crown from last year’s 15-under victory at Caves Valley, Maryland \u2013 but instead found himself struggling near the bottom of the leaderboard after accumulating four bogeys in the opening seven holes.<\/p>\n

Despite recovering a stroke before making the turn, Scheffler then dropped another on the 10th.<\/p>\n

A pair of birdies scattered amongst a sequence of pars enabled him to regain some stability, leaving Scheffler at two over, with only three players from the 50-strong field behind him.<\/p>\n

Scheffler chose not to address the media after completing his round. American pair Gary Woodland \u2013 who drained a stunning 99-yard eagle on the 11th \u2013 and Wyndham Clark, after birdieing five of his last six holes, are both level with McIlroy at six under par.<\/p>\n

JJ Spaun, a fellow former US Open champion, looked set to claim outright top spot before dropping a shot at the 18th, leaving him to share the lead with late finisher Chris Gotterup.<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick wrapped up his round with back-to-back birdies to reach five under, joining Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune, while his brother Alex finds himself in a group one shot further adrift.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy bounced back from a disappointing St Jude Championship with a superb six-under-par 64 to share the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[44,1399,399,208],"class_list":["post-53777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-golf","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}