Thursday 12 January 2017 20:40, UK
Rory McIlroy made an encouraging start to his first tournament of 2017 as he fired an opening 67 to sit one shot off the early lead at the BMW SA Open.
Playing in the event for the first time since 2009, McIlroy marched up the leaderboard with four straight birdies and added another at the second - his 11th - before being forced into scrambling mode as his long game suddenly took a turn for the worse.
McIlroy narrowly failed to save par at the fourth and fifth, although he bounced back with a birdie at the short sixth after hitting a sublime tee shot to within two feet of the flag.
The world No 2 did well to salvage par at the next before he picked up his seventh birdie of the round at the long eighth thanks to a brilliant pitch from the rough to six feet, and he atoned for a pulled three-wood into the trees at the ninth with a remarkable second to the green which set up a comfortable two-putt par.
McIlroy was happy to emerge relatively unscathed from an "adventurous" front nine after closing on five under in his first competitive round since the DP World Tour Championship in November.
"I started off with a solid run of pars and then made a nice run of birdies there on the back nine," said McIlroy, who has changed every club in his bag as well as putting a new ball into play following Nike's decision to cease production of golf equipment.
"I gave myself plenty of chances and probably missed a few. I played well, but it was a bit adventurous on the second nine, I scrambled a good bit and did my bit to try and salvage a few holes. I should have made those up and downs at four and five, but I came back with a couple of birdies on the way in.
"I didn't realise how far the ball went here. It's a long golf course but when it heats up like this, the ball goes a long way. You really have to think your way around, it's a great golf course."
McIlroy was confident his new set-up was "working pretty well", and he added: "It's nice to play my first competitive round with the new clubs and play like this.
"I'm sure as I get accustomed to them, I'll get even more dialed in, and chop and change a little bit."
