McIlroy without a driver: Debut in India with -3, Lowry leads with 64 strokes

McIlroy Starts the DP World Tour Championship India with a Rollercoaster Round

Rory McIlroy’s strategy of leaving his driver in the locker room didn’t affect his ability to score, achieving six birdies at the challenging Delhi Golf Club, but he suffered three bogeys in the opening round of the DP World Championship India. The world number 2 started promisingly with a chip-in from the edge on his first hole, the 10th, but difficulties began on the 11th, where he had three putts, followed by consecutive bogeys.

Despite the absence of his longest club, McIlroy had no problem making birdies on the two par-5s, reaching the halfway point at 1 under par, and added three more strokes in the next seven holes.

However, a bogey on the 8th hole, of 522 yards, led him to finish with a 69, three under par, remaining five strokes behind the provisional leader, Shane Lowry.

“The driver was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker room. I was thinking about it last night before I went to bed,” McIlroy commented on his club selection in the post-round interview. “Sometimes, if you’re very conservative off a par-5 today, you might have a 5-wood into the green, but I’m never going to hit the driver. So I figured I had to use a 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron all the way, and then I have a 5-wood in case I need to use it for an approach shot on a par-5.”

Rory McIlroy

This strategy didn’t work for him on the 17th hole, the par-5 of the 8th, where his tee shot went into the trees, advancing only about 15 meters into the rough, resulting in a bogey. McIlroy stated that the course was still “quite complicated” despite the limited distance required from the tee.

“You’re just trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to get birdies on the par-5s and maybe add a couple more pars,” he added.

Rory McIlroy

Lowry, who achieved eight birdies to take the lead, commented that the constant noise of Delhi’s traffic was much more manageable than the abusive crowd at the Ryder Cup in New York. Playing with European captain Luke Donald and teammate Tommy Fleetwood, Lowry had an impressive run with five birdies in a row in the last nine holes, with the background noise of horns and the incessant traffic of the capital. He closed his round of 64 with a birdie on the 18th hole.

“We all had a great time and played pretty well, and I just managed a few more birdies than them on the back nine,” Lowry said. “We could hear the horns from the road; it wasn’t as disruptive as the crowd at Bethpage.”

Shane Lowry

Fleetwood and Donald finished with 4 under par. Keita Nakajima (65) also achieved five consecutive birdies in the middle of his round, starting at the 18th hole and then four in a row to start the first nine holes. This is an important moment of the year for the former amateur world number 1, as he tries to enter the top 10 of the European Tour players who will receive PGA Tour cards for 2026. Ben Griffin, who debuted in the Ryder Cup for the U.S. team, started with a 68 alongside another American, Michael Kim, who arrived late in India due to visa issues. Kim has already won on the European circuit this year at the French Open. This is the beginning of an important stage for McIlroy at the end of the year, as he also plans to participate in the Abu Dhabi Championship and the World Tour Championship, in addition to the Australian Open.