OLYMPIA FIELDS, Unwell. — Rory McIlroy didn’t thoughts being within the tough at rain-soaked Olympia Subjects, excluding for having bushes and a bunker between him and the seventeenth inexperienced. Or even that didn’t topic Thursday within the BMW Championship.

McIlroy discovered the shorten grass best six instances with 18 tee pictures — 3 of them on par 3s — and no person would have guessed that taking a look at his card. He performed bogey-free for a 5-under 65, giving him a proportion of the top with British Distinguishable champion Brian Harman in the second one FedEx Cup playoff match.

“Only hitting three fairways today and coming up with 65 is a bit of a bonus,” McIlroy stated.

The vegetables have been so comfortable from a two-hour mist lengthen within the morning that McIlroy discovered seeking to get at pins used to be more straightforward coming from the tough, for the reason that ball wouldn’t have as a lot spin.

“I’m not saying I was trying to aim for the rough,” he stated with a grin.

And surely the spot he discovered himself in on the par-4 seventeenth wasn’t supreme. He best had 116 yards left at the 456-yard hollow, however he had a arise of bushes blocking off his trail to the golf green, a weighty bunker in entrance of the hanging floor.

McIlroy punched 7-iron thru an opening within the branches, simply over the bunker, simply over the golf green and nearest chipped in for birdie. It used to be that more or less life.

“There was a couple of branches above the window I was looking at, and I was like, ‘If it hits those, it’s just going to drop down near that front left bunker and I’ll have a decent angle down the green and have a 10-footer or less to save par,'” McIlroy stated. “It was a bit of a hit-and-a-hope. Just trying to thread that needle. It was either chip it out or take it on. And it’s only Thursday.

“I believed, ‘What the heck? I’ll pull it on and notice what occurs.'”

Harman, who returned from his British Open title last week at the FedEx Cup playoff opener with some rust, delivered his excitement toward the end of the round. He holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th, and then chipped in for birdie on the 17th.

They were were one shot clear of a large group at 66 that included Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala and Rickie Fowler, a good start for different reasons.

Scheffler went nine months without finishing worse than 12th and then went outside the top 20 for consecutive weeks as his putting has struggled. Fowler has a chance to earn one of the six automatic spots on the U.S. Ryder Cup team by winning.

As for Fitzpatrick and Theegala, it’s all about being among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup after this week to advance to the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake.

Fitzpatrick is No. 40 and needs a good finish to reach the Tour Championship and salvage a disappointing year. Last year’s U.S. Open champion beat Jordan Spieth in a playoff at Hilton Head, but he has one top 10 in his last nine starts that has seen his FedEx Cup standing drop.

“In reality happy,” Fitzpatrick said of his performance, adding “in point of fact” six more times, equaling the number of birdies he made in the opening round.

Theegala is at No. 31 going into the BMW Championship and jumped into the mix by holing out with a 9-iron from the 14th fairway for an eagle.

“I feel it’s unimaginable to forget about,” Theegala said of the FedEx Cup standings. “I feel everybody could be mendacity in the event that they didn’t know precisely the place they stood — now not precisely however rather of an concept what it’s getting to pull to get to later generation.”

Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young were among those at 67, both trying to improve their Ryder Cup stock. Jon Rahm, two-time defending champion Patrick Cantlay and Spieth were at 68.

Lucas Glover, going for his third straight victory in as many weeks, shot 70.

Rahm won at Olympia Fields in 2020 on a course so dry and firm that 4-under par got him into a playoff he won over Dustin Johnson.

The rough was long and wet. The greens were so soft it made it a challenge to hit it the right distance — especially with a back pin — knowing the ball would zip back. That’s why McIlroy didn’t mind if the ball was in the rough. This was a time to blast away, and the game’s most artistic driver put on a show.

“A quantity of the tee pictures I used to be simply being tremendous competitive as a result of I knew behind my thoughts I wasn’t in point of fact being penalized for it,” McIlroy said. “The golfing path is in no way enjoying how it performed in 2020. That used to be now not my way a couple of years in the past right here.

“But hopefully with the wind and the sun, the golf course starts to firm up a little bit and starts to play a little bit more like how I think it should play.”