Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler reverse roles in surprise start at BMW Championship

ST. LOUIS – If it were a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the fight long before their 36 holes ended together. A week ago, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy played the first two rounds of the FedEx St. Jude Championship together and looked miles apart. To quote Roger Maltbie, “It’s just not a fair fight.”

Scheffler bested McIlroy by 15 shots over those two rounds, a precursor to what he would do to the rest of the field on the weekend, blowing the tournament open and winning by eight strokes.

McIlroy and Scheffler aren’t paired together this week in St. Louis, but if a rematch were on tap, the Northern Irishman landed the opening blow.

After looking lost at TPC Southwind, Rory McIlroy looked brilliant during his bogey-free 64 in the first round at Bellerive Country Club. Scheffler, riding as much momentum as any player could possibly take fresh off the most dominant win of the PGA TOUR season, looked perplexed. Scheffler shot 2-over 72. At one point, Scheffler was dead last on the leaderboard. He finished tied for 44th in the 50-man field.

For McIlroy, it was as simple as arriving at a friendly course with a friendlier climate and a better swing thought. McIlroy returned to Florida for one day in between tournaments to get extra practice with his coach, Michael Bannon. The two found a swing feel and pre-shot rehearsal for McIlroy to take with him, and that was all he needed for the turnaround.

“I felt like I'm at least back on the right path of what I'm doing with my game and with my swing,” McIlroy said. “It's certainly a work in progress.”

McIlroy hit only seven fairways but recovered well. He hit 17 greens and ranked second in Strokes Gained: Approach. McIlroy’s longest made birdie putt was only 14 feet. He made a flurry of birdies late, nabbing four on his final six holes. He’s in a share of the lead beside four others.

“Days like this are encouraging, obviously,” McIlroy said. “There's still a lot of work to be done. But for, you know, first round with what I'm trying to do, middle rehearsal on the takeaway, all that sort of stuff, it went as well as it could have today, for sure.”

Scheffler, meanwhile, looked like the Monstars had paid him a visit for the first 10 holes. He was 4 over with eight holes to play, sitting at 50th on the leaderboard. He salvaged two birdies to finish 2 over, only one better than the worst score of the day.

Scheffler had shot over par just once in his last 18 rounds, and the two parts of his game that were the best in Memphis – approach play and putting – were the biggest culprits. Scheffler ranked third-worst in approach play and fourth-worst in putting.

It’s hard to decide which result was more jarring. McIlroy looked lost just four days ago. Scheffler was on top of the world. Time will tell if McIlroy landed the knockout blow.