HSBC Champions. Mighty Mac Is Back

Rory McIlroy proved that mighty Mac is back, by leading the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, China, on the first day of play.

Rory McIlroy / Getty Images

Rory reminded everybody that he is still a force to be reckoned with by firing an opening round of -7 under par 65 at Sheshan International Golf Cub, for his opening round. This follows his victory over Tiger Woods in that irrelevant exhibition match last week.

Rory is currently 62nd on The Race to Dubai rankings, and needs to move into the top 60 this week to have a chance of qualifying for the DP World Tour Championship in November. He spoke about how he likes this golf course;

“I came here yesterday and talked about how I like this golf course and how I felt like it set up well for me, it felt good to be out there and be in control of my golf ball. I gave myself a lot of looks for birdies. 
It’s a great start. It’s only one round of golf but it’s definitely the way I wanted and needed to start this week, keeping in mind that I obviously want to play myself into Dubai and try to pick up my first win of the season, as well. 
It felt pretty good out there. I let a couple of putts get away from me, a couple of the downhill ones, but I was able to hole ones coming back, which was good. I’ve tried to stay patient the entire season, and I know that if I believe that I’m working on the right things and I am working on the right things, then things will start to fall into place sooner or later. 
It’s obviously frustrating when you’ve had a couple of seasons previously where you have had success, and not being able to emulate that, there’s times where you definitely get frustrated. I wouldn’t say that I was restless in terms of trying to get a win this season, because I think that the best way to approach it is to stay patient and not to force the issue too much.” 

Tied in second place at two off the pace of the leader, at -5 under par after their rounds of  67 were Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Jamie Donaldson. 

Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Bubba Watson and Justin Rose all opened with -4 under par 68. There is a long way to go, but Rory seems like he is back in business.