Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry didn’t manage to claim the first round lead in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – that honour fell to American Russell Henley – but the two Irishmen stole the highlight reels in each recording holes-in-one in the $20 million PGA Tour signature event, as each used their aces to move into contention.
Both McIlroy and Lowry recorded 66s, to sit in tied-eighth, two strokes adrift of Henley who opened with a 64 at Spyglass Hill. The tournament has a limited field of 80 players with no midway cut.
McIlroy, in his first appearance of the season on the PGA Tour, claimed his hole-in-one in slam-dunk style on the 15th hole at Spyglass Hill, while Lowry’s came on the iconic seventh hole overlooking the Pacific at Pebble Beach.
Of his hole-out from the elevated tee for the ace on the 15th, his sixth hole of the round, McIlroy remarked: “It’s sort of weird, you’re looking at it and you’re sort of watching where it might land on the green and the thing just disappears. Honestly, it was lucky, I don’t see many balls nowadays go straight in the hole and stay in the hole. Pretty fortunate because it could have come out and went back in the water or do anything.”
McIlroy’s ball – using a TaylorMade 2024 TP5 for the first time in competition – did none of those things, plunging straight into the tin cup for a hole-in-one to go with four birdies in a bogey-free start to his season on the US circuit.
While the hole-in-one was the standout moment of his round in kickstarting his way into contention, McIlroy’s wedge play – as evidenced with a fine approach shot to the ninth, his final hole – showcased a greater confidence with that club in hand as he set up a closing birdie.
“It was a perfect number for a gap wedge for me, it was 135 (yards) adjusted and I could just go ahead and take a good swing at it. (Bob) Rotella and I talk about this a lot; if I drive the ball well, I’m going to have about 50 shots a week from inside 150 yards. We just talk about taking dead aim. If you’re swinging OK, the ball’s not going to curve much from that distance. (We) sort of talk a lot about taking dead aim and making the most of sort of those tee shots that I hit that I get myself into that range,” revealed McIlroy.
Lowry’s hole-in-one – another to add to a collection on the PGA Tour that already included one at Augusta National in the 2016 Masters (the 16th) and also at TPC Sawgrass in 2022 The Players (the 17th, island hole) – came on the 113 yard seventh hole at Pebble Beach. Unlike McIlroy’s which flew straight into the hole, Lowry’s ball hit the green some 10 feet from the flag and, after a couple of bounces, spun slowly and surely into the tin cup.
Of the three Irish players in the field, Séamus Power was the odd one out in missing out on a hole-in-one. Power, playing for the first time since missing the cut at the Sony Open earlier in the month where he suffered from a back injury, opened with a three-under 69 at Pebble Beach.
Henley, seeking a first win since his 2022 World Wide Technology victory in Mexico, had nine birdies and one bogey in his round at Spyglass Hill to claim a one stroke lead over a sextet of players that included European Ryder Cup players Justin Rose, a past winner, Viktor Hovland and Sepp Straka.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to the Counter Ruck podcast for the best rugby chat and analysis
