RORY McILROY HAS 78, LEE WESTWOOD 66 IN MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
Rory McIlroy's miserable run of form showed no sign of abating as he shot an opening-round 78 to finish six over par on the first day of the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

The Northern Irishman missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship last week, admitting he had been put off by poor weather at Wentworth.

This week's tournament in Dublin offered McIlroy the chance to put that behind him with the US Open only a fortnight away, but he failed to fire once again.

Starting on the back nine, McIlroy had an ideal first hole with a birdie at the par-four 10th, but it was all uphill from there.

A double-bogey at the 12th heralded a woeful day, with a further three bogeys racked up before the turn.

There was no respite on the front nine as he hit a further three bogeys, interspersed with a birdie at the fifth, before squandering birdies chances at the final two holes.

England's Lee Westwood also endured a miserable opening round of 76.

The Englishman had appeared to be on the brink of victory last week at Wentworth only to squander a two-shot lead in the final round.
While not as disastrous as the round of his Ryder Cup team-mate, Westwood looked in the doldrums as he hit three bogeys and a double-bogey on his way to a four-over total.
In contrast, South Africa's Charl Schwartzel made up for hitting a bogey and a double-bogey with 10 birdies seeing him to a seven-under-par 65.
That was one shot ahead of Scott Piercy, who hit eight birdies - five of them consecutively on the front nine - only to drop shots at the 12th and 18th.
A further shot behind were Josh Teater and Russell Henley, who both shot 67s.
World number one Tiger Woods was among the later starters. 

CLUBHOUSE LEADERBOARD
Par 70
Players from USA unless stated
63 Charl Schwartzel (South Africa)
66 Scott Piercy
67 Josh Teater, Russell Henley, Kyle Stanley, Charlie Wi (S Korea)
68 Matt Kuchar, Bill Haas.

69 Matt Jones, Michael Thompson, Robert Karlsson, Chris Stroud.

SELECTED SCORES
70 Justin Rose (England), Fred Couples (T13)
71 Martin Laird (Scotland), Bubba Watson (T27)
72 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spain) (T41)
73 Ernie Els (South Africa), Luke Donald (England) (T58)
75 Brian Davis (England), Jim Furyk (T86).
76 Lee Westwood (England) (T96).
78 Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), Shane Lowry (Ireland) (T107)
80 Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) (119th).
82 Nick Watney.
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