{"id":412147,"date":"2023-02-10T07:35:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T12:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=412147"},"modified":"2023-02-10T07:35:19","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T12:35:19","slug":"struggling-mcilroy-says-he-was-trying-to-embrace-the-challenge","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/struggling-mcilroy-says-he-was-trying-to-embrace-the-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling McIlroy says he was &#8220;trying to embrace the challenge&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"qa-introduction gel-pica-bold\" role=\"introduction\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0\">Northern Ireland&#8217;s Rory McIlroy said he was &#8220;trying to embrace the challenge&#8221; of a course he does not enjoy playing after opening with a two-over-par 73 at the PGA Tour&#8217;s WM Phoenix Open in Arizona.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Are you kidding \ud83e\udd2f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/McIlroyRory?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@McIlroyRory<\/a> has no issues from the trees <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WMPhoenixOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WMPhoenixOpen<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t6Ljad7w3o\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/t6Ljad7w3o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PGATOUR\/status\/1623768651059830784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 9, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3\">\n<div class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1\">\n<div id=\"bbccom_mpu_1_2_3\" class=\"bbccom_slot bbccom_standard_slot mpu_first_slot\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1.$body-0\">\n<div class=\"bbccom_advert\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1.$body-0.0\">&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t say that this is a golf course that sets up terribly well for me,&#8221; the world number one said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5.0\">&#8220;I struggle off the tee and the fairway bunkers are in my landing zones.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3\">\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0.0\">Frost delayed play by nearly two hours with 68 players unable to complete round one at TPC Scottsdale.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1\">\n<div id=\"bbccom_mpu_1_2_3\" class=\"bbccom_slot bbccom_standard_slot mpu_first_slot\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1.$body-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6.0\">McIlroy, who won last month&#8217;s Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, is playing the tournament for just the second time, having made his debut in 2021. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6.0\">He started on the 10th and mixed four bogeys with two birdies in blustery conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7.0\">However, he made an incredible par on the second hole after a wayward drive left his ball a foot from a fence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7\"><span data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7.0\"> McIlroy gouged out a sensational shot from 128 yards and two-putted from 42 feet with trees blocking his view of the green.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\".177yljtlqco.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/canadian-pair-lead-weather-delayed-phoenix-open\/\">Canadians Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin overcame an early weather delay<\/a> to card five-under-par 66s and grab a one-shot lead .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Ireland&#8217;s Rory McIlroy said he was &#8220;trying to embrace the challenge&#8221; of a course he does not enjoy playing after opening with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4224,"featured_media":412153,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17415,16985,17417],"news_category":[16713],"gn_keywords":[],"acf":{"announce":"Northern Irishman opened with a two-over-par 73 at the PGA Tour's Phoenix Open in Arizona","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/412147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/412147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412147"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=412147"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=412147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}