Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry made underwhelming starts to their opening round at the Phoenix Open on Thursday.
McIlroy, who won his last start at the Dubai Desert Classic, struggled to a two-over opening round of 73.
Beginning on the back nine, McIlroy hooked his drive into the water at the 11th, subsequently tapping in for a bogey five. While he recovered with birdies at 15 and 17, another dropped stroke followed at the 18th.
Two more bogeys followed on his inward nine, on the second and the short seventh holes to leave him well off the pace after round one.
It was an even more trying afternoon for Lowry, who finished with two successive bogeys to card a four over par round of 75.
Seamus Power fared rather better early in his round and was one under par after four holes.
The early pace was set by Canadian duo Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin, who both sot five-under 65s before play was suspended due to darkness. Xander Schauffele and 2011 PGA Champion Keegan Bradley were one stroke further back on four-under-par.
A frost delay on Thursday morning delayed the start of the round by nearly two hours, and 68 players had yet to complete their rounds when play was called for the day. Those players will finish their rounds Friday morning.
Taylor had an eventful start to his day, with an eagle three at the third hole erased by a double-bogey six at No 6. But after making the turn in one-over-par, he caught fire with four straight birdies at Nos 10to 13 and added two more for a six-under 30 coming in.
Hadwin started his day on the back nine and shook off his only bogey of the round with a bounce-back birdie at the par-three 12th, where he stuck his tee shot to within three feet of the hole. He made three straight birdies at Nos. 17, 18 and 1 and finished the day with six in all.
Taylor has won twice on tour, most recently in February 2020, while Hadwin has prevailed just once, back in 2017.
The purse this week is $20m (€18.65m), and the winner will take home a $3.6m (€3.36m) share.
