McIlroy back to the drawing board to solve driving woes

World number two Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks down after a fourth consecutive bogey to end his opening round 74 at the PGA Championship at Aronimink (JAMIE SQUIRE)

(JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP)

Rory McIlroy struggled with wayward tee shots in a four-over par 74 start Thursday at the PGA Championship, then was asked to describe his frustrating round at breezy Aronimink.

"Shit," McIlroy said.

Driving woes the world number two thought had been put behind him roared up again as the six-time major winner from Northern Ireland admitted his aggravation.

"I'm just not driving the ball well enough to give myself enough scoring opportunities," McIlroy said.

"That's pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well. I just need to try to figure it out. I honestly thought I had figured it out."

McIlroy, however, found his form in practice and tuneup events came to nought under major pressure.

"Once I get under the gun, it just seems like it starts to go a little bit wayward on me," McIlroy said.

McIlroy struggled off the tee last month in his victory at the Masters, notably on the final hole where he found pine straw on an adjacent hole and scrambled to salvage a bogey for the triumph.

On Thursday at Aronimink, McIlroy began bogey-birdie on the back nine, then made 10 pars in a row before closing with five bogeys in his last six holes, including the final four in a row.

"I started missing fairways," McIlroy said. "It's hard. I didn't have great angles either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky.

"I felt like I did OK... then I just got on that bogey train at the end."

McIlroy said the right pinky toe issue that caused him to cut short a Tuesday practice round was not a factor in the poor performance.

"It has been a problem all year for the most part," McIlroy said of his swing issues. "I miss it right and then I want to try to correct it and then I'll overdo it and I'll miss it left. It's a little bit of back and forth that way."