Rory McIlroy's hole-in-one sparks hope amidst a disappointing round

CROMWELL, Conn. – On a day when so many things were choppy – a bogey on a par 5 and two shots squandered over his last three holes – Rory McIlroy gushed about one of his 68 shots in the first round of the Travelers Championship.

Yes, his first-ever hole-in-one on the PGA TOUR brought a wide smile to his face.

“That was the best shot of the day that I hit,” said McIlroy of the 5-iron back into a light breeze at the 215-yard eighth hole at TPC River Highlands. No crazy bounce or strange kick off a mound was required; this was a pure stripe and while “it’s a bonus for it to go in the hole, it was really cool.

McIlroy wanted to savor talking about the hole-in-one, but the truth is, it was a great highlight on an otherwise not-so-great day for him. He bogeyed five holes on a course that was yielding deep red numbers, finishing at an uninspired 2-under.

Acknowledging that his eagle and five birdies were good enough production to be high on the leaderboard, McIlroy seemed beleaguered to know that with a 68 he trails by eight and he’ll have lots of work to do Friday just to make the cut.

“Sloppy. I just need to tidy that up.”

He confirmed that he had only made one other ace at this level of golf, back in 2015 at Abu Dhabi on the DP World Tour, so the flushed 5-iron felt great. It was especially timely, too.

“I had played pretty average up until that point,” said McIlroy, who was 1-over through seven.

He followed the ace at 8 with a brilliant 136-yard bunker shot to 2 feet at the par-4 ninth and a 194-yard approach that he gouged out of rough at the par-4 10th that got to 17 feet. The eagle-birdie-birdie burst pushed him to 3-under.

“I felt like that hole-in-one got me going a little bit. Got me into the tournament a bit.”

Emphasis on “a bit”, because the roll came to a screeching halt as McIlroy played the last six holes with two birdies and three bogeys. Indeed, a wildly inconsistent afternoon that included one memorable swing.

Just don’t expect the hole-in-one ball to be going on display. “I threw it away,” he said. “I’m not sentimental. I don’t care. I’d rather have trophies than golf balls.”

Fair enough, but he knows that he’s got a long, long way to go if he hopes to make this week’s Travelers Championship trophy his. A hole-in-one can only do so much.