Aaron Rai of England and Matt Fitzpatrick, the US Open winner, are tied for the lead after the first round of the RBC Canadian Open.
After being three over after five holes at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club, Rai came back to shoot a spectacular five-under 67, joining four other players in a tie for first place.
A first-hole birdie at the second was negated by a double-bogey at the third and back-to-back bogeys from the fourth, but the world No. 130 recovered with three birdies in a four-hole run starting at the seventh.
Rai picked up a stroke at the following hole and came near to a hole-in-one at the par-three 14th after making a two-putt birdie at the par-five 12th. Later birdies at the 16th and 18th helped Rai tie for first place with Chesson Hadley, Justin Lower, and Canada’s Corey Conners.
Rai stated, “Overall, I performed extremely good. The hardest holes on the course would be holes three through six, and it’s challenging because they’re all nearly back-to-back. However, I was quite happy with how we played and how the round ended.”
Conners started the week without a blemish, while Lower eagled the par-five last to complete the top four. Hadley maintained the lead until a bogey at the par-three ninth, his penultimate hole.
Fitzpatrick had five birdies on the first day, which was encouraging ahead of his defence of the US Open title the following week. A bogey on his last hole, the 352-yard eighth, dropped him to a tie for sixth.
Rory McIlroy started his attempt for a third straight RBC Canadian Open triumph with an opening-round score of 71. England’s Justin Rose is two back and Tommy Fleetwood is in the group three back.
In an interesting start, McIlroy blended five birdies with four bogeys. The Northern Irishman, who played with Rose, was delighted to be back concentrating on golf after a hectic week in the game.
“Rosie [Justin Rose] and I agreed that we shouldn’t talk until lunch so that we can focus on what we’re doing outside,” said McIlroy. ‘No, let’s stop this,’ we said as we started to converse while going down the first hole. Let’s just concentrate on our golf and have a conversation when we get inside.
“So, for those five hours we were out there, it was nice to play a round of golf and concentrate on something else.”
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