GOLF: Rory McIlroy continues good form at Players Championship

Jordan Spieth spoke in despairing tones and headed straight for the driving range. Rory McIlroy had a bounce in his stride and awarded himself the afternoon off.

Round one at the Players Championship had proved about as equal a battle between the two as that one the other night between Lionel Messi and Jerome Boateng.

It might have meant nothing in relation to their long-term rivalry but it did underline the truism that Spieth has a lot of catching up to do and the belief that even when he's finished busting a gut he'll still be a distance behind an opponent in a league of his own. 

Rory McIlroy came out firmly on top in an early instalment of his so-called 'rivalry' with Jordan Spieth
 

The Northern Irishman continued his good form on Thursday with an opening round of 69, three under par

Spieth struggled to a three-over 75 and showed his frustration by throwing his ball into the water

On a course that favoured the Masters champion far more than the world No 1, Spieth looked mentally fatigued as he ran up a 75, while McIlroy cruised round in 69 shots to lie two strokes behind early pacemaker, exciting Japanese Hideki Matsuyama.

'I'm just thankful there is a lot of time between the end of this round and the start of my second one, because I really need to find something on the range,' said Spieth. 'If I hadn't putted well I might not have broken 80.'

As for McIlroy, he's keen to ride the momentum established following his Match Play victory last week. 'I'm playing well and want to keep this going,' he said. 'It was tricky out there with the wind, so I'm really happy with the start.' 

The McIlroy-Spieth grouping certainly captured the imagination of the Jacksonville public. At 7:30am ticket touts lined the crowded roads leading to the Stadium course. An hour later, the 10th hole was lined several people deep as the pair made their grand entrance alongside Australian Jason Day.

Spieth was clearly keen to make an impression. Too keen, as it turned out. As the breaks went against him, so the levels of frustration rose. At the par five 11th his ball finished in a buried lie in a bunker and he took a six; at the long 16th his approach hit the downslope of a bunker and finished in a horrible spot where he had to stand precariously on the wooden sleepers that line the water hazard. He made a mess of that one and ran up another six.

By his side McIlroy was a model of calmness and precision. He played so well that if this was a course that fitted his eye, he’d have been out in front by now.

McIlroy opened with five straight pars before a superb approach from a bunker on the 15th set up a birdie

Spieth bogeyed his first two holes to set him off to a bag start in the Players Championship at Sawgrass

The celebrated trinity of closing holes showed him at his best. At the 16th a mighty drive left him with a mid-iron to the green, and he knocked in the resultant 6ft putt for an eagle three. The 17th and 18th were played into the teeth of the breeze, the sort of conditions that would have caused problems for McIlroy earlier in his career.

Now, after a par at the island green 17th, he struck a beautifully flighted drive down the line of the water hazard at the difficult last hole.

It left him playing an approach from a spot 43 yards shorter than from where Spieth was playing, and he struck another pure stroke to 12ft from the hole. 

McIlroy had extended his lead in the rankings thanks to victory in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play on Sunday

In his previous six rounds here, McIlroy has played the back nine in 24 under par and the front nine in 11 over. So perhaps it was not surprising that his next nine holes proved more prosaic, with his only bogey at the first offset by a birdie two at the 8th.

As for the other UK players out early, Ian Poulter fared best with a useful round of 71.