{"id":54002,"date":"2026-08-21T19:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54002\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:13:19","slug":"rory-mcilroy-shares-lead-at-bmw-championship-2026-after-round-1-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/54002\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy shares lead at BMW Championship 2026 after Round 1 64"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aug. 20, 2026, 7:18 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

ST. LOUIS \u2013 As Rory McIlroy settled into a chair to be interviewed by Golf Channel\u2019s Kira K. Dixon, he summed up his bogey-free 6-under 64 at Bellerive Country Club on Thursday \u2013 good enough for a share of the lead with four other players at the BMW Championship<\/a> \u2014 in one word.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnexpected,\u201d McIlroy, the world No. 2 and reigning Masters champion, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew you had it in you,\u201d Dixon shot back with a smile.<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

McIlroy was coming off a dismal performance in the sweltering heat of Memphis at a TPC Southwind course that he\u2019s on record as saying isn\u2019t his cup of tea. The Northern Irishman got lapped by winner Scottie Scheffler, finishing 66th\u00a0and beating just two players in the field who bothered to complete 72 holes.<\/p>\n

McIlroy left Memphis deflated but he flew home and got back to work on Monday with his longtime swing coach Michael Bannon and caddie Harry Diamond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Explore how to live where you love to play Access community guides, golf real estate insights, trusted agent connections, and content built for passionate golfers.<\/a>FedEx Cup<\/a> bubble: Who’s up, who’s down for Tour Championship after BMW Round 1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI went home and I worked on a few things and at least got myself back in a frame of mind where like I felt like I’m at least back on the right path of what I’m doing with my game and with my swing. It’s certainly a work in progress,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cDays like this are encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

For McIlroy, a change of scenery did a lot of good and he admitted that in addition to the cooler temperature \u2013 relatively speaking as it still reached the high 80s \u2013 Bellerive is a big ballpark that suits his game. He \u201cheld it together,” he said, on the front nine, making birdies at Nos. 4 and 8 to go out in 33 and then started hitting a few more fairways and birdied four of the last six holes coming in.<\/p>\n

McIlroy has added a rehearsal of his takeaway to his pre-shot routine and while he admittedly is still thinking about his golf swing too much, he\u2019s able to visualize the shot he wants to make in his head and execute it better.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt went as well as it could have today, for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But McIlroy is in the midst of a busy stretch of golf and he knows the real work to correct his swing will have to wait to the off-season. He quoted a favorite saying of his dad to emphasize his point. \u201cOne swallow doesn\u2019t make a summer,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, one round doesn\u2019t signal all is well in his game again but it\u2019s a start and he\u2019s sitting pretty after one round at the BMW.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 20, 2026, 7:18 p.m. ET ST. LOUIS \u2013 As Rory McIlroy settled into a chair to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[58,1443,59,1236,1237,16149,1302,65,5403,69,1239,1011,67,62],"class_list":["post-54002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw-championship","tag-accessfree","tag-bmw-championship","tag-sourcegolfweek","tag-sstssportsgolfpga","tag-sstsnpga-tour","tag-tagbmw-championship","tag-tagfedex-cup","tag-taggolf","tag-tagmasters-tournament-2027","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagrory-mcilroy","tag-tagscottie-scheffler","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54002","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=54002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}