{"id":200369,"date":"2025-06-20T17:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/200369\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T17:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:03:18","slug":"rory-mcilroy-made-personal-history-with-pga-tour-first-at-travelers-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/200369\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy made personal history with PGA Tour first at Travelers Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy enjoyed his opening round at the Travelers Championship on Thursday, but it will be hard to beat his 2023 feat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McIlroy<\/a> posted a six-under-par first round at TPC River Highlands<\/a>, seeing him finish the day tied for third place in the leaderboard. <\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy made personal history with stunning moment at Travelers Championship<\/p>\n

His score of 64 was impressive, but it was a 68 two years ago that will always remain as one of the Northern Irishman’s best memories.<\/p>\n

During that first day of the Travelers two years ago, McIlroy achieved something he had never done before in his career. <\/p>\n

He pulled off his first-ever hole-in-one on the PGA Tour<\/a>. <\/p>\n

McIlroy struck a perfect 215-yard tee shot on the par-three eighth hole at TPC River Highlands, landing it a few yards shy of the hole. <\/p>\n

The ball then rolled directly towards the hole, as commentators shouted: “Do it Rory, do it!”<\/p>\n

And it dropped for an ace, with McIroy lifting his arms aloft in joy as he celebrated back at the tee box. <\/p>\n

After sharing his celebrations with his caddie and others at the eighth, he turned to acknowledge the joyous fans behind him.<\/p>\n

The hole-in-one came at just the right time too, as he had struggled with his putter, bogeying two holes to go overpar beforehand. <\/p>\n

Speaking about his first ever ace on the PGA Tour, McIlroy said: “Five-iron to 215 yards, slightly back into the wind off the right. <\/p>\n

“As hole-in-ones go, I’ve had them in the past where it has been an okay shot and you get a little lucky.<\/p>\n

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

4<\/p>\n

McIlroy perfectly sent his tee shot 214 yards on the eighth holeCredit: PGA Tour \/ YouTube\"It<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

It bounced close to hole and rolled ever closerCredit: PGA Tour \/ YouTube\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The ball then dropped in for his first-ever ace on the PGA TourCredit: PGA Tour \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

“That was the best shot of the day that I hit. Obviously a bonus for it to go in the hole, but it was really cool. <\/p>\n

“I played pretty averagely up until that point and felt like that hole-in-one got me going a little bit.”<\/p>\n

McIlroy followed the ace up with a birdie at the ninth at TPC River Highlands before going on to drop some shots late in his round.<\/p>\n

It meant he ended the opening day eight strokes back of Denny McCarthy at the top of the leaderboard. <\/p>\n

The 36-year-old went on to finish the tournament T7 on -18, with Keegan Bradley winning the Travelers at -23.<\/p>\n

He would then achieve his second hole-in-one on the PGA Tour<\/a> in January of this year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy's<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s second ace came earlier this year at the Pebble Beach Pro-AmCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The low-scoring course at TPC River Highlands<\/a> brings plenty of birdie chances and certainly increases the chances of an ace.<\/p>\n

But we’re yet to see any at this year’s event, with Scottie Scheffler<\/a> tying for the lead as things stand. <\/p>\n

Scheffler is eight under par after the opening round, level with Austin Ekroat and two ahead of McIlroy.<\/p>\n

McIlory begins his second round at 6:45pm UK time on Friday and he’ll hope to potentially add another ace to his collection.<\/p>\n

talkSPORT 2 will have live coverage of all the action.<\/p>\n

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click\u00a0HERE for the live stream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app<\/a>, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy enjoyed his opening round at the Travelers Championship on Thursday, but it will be hard to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,4298,4287,80988,80989,80986,80987,79,79627,79625,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-200369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-pga-tour","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-rory-mcilroy-ace","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy-first-pga-tour-hole-in-one","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy-history","14":"tag-rory-mcilroy-hole-in-one","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tpc-river-highlands","17":"tag-travelers-championship","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114716777444548798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}