Rory’s Riviera debut a good one as McIlroy opens with 67

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After his opening round of 4-under 67 on Thursday in his first-ever appearance in the Northern Trust Open, Rory McIlroy was asked to describe in one word what it’s like to pipe a 320-yard drive right down the middle.

The four-time major winner didn’t give it a whole lot of thought.

“Normal,” he said.

It wasn’t as common in his first competitive round at Riviera Country Club. McIlroy only hit half of the fairways and 11 greens in regulation. That might sound sub-standard, but McIlroy said Wednesday that was right about his target on the George C. Thomas Jr. design.

“You hit 12 greens around here, you’ve done pretty well,” he said. “So there will be a lot of those holing-out-type distances for pars that will be important.”

Even when McIlroy missed off the tee, his short game left him in a position to convert those par-savers. He took just 27 putts on Thursday and avoided the dreaded three-putt.

Ahead of the tournament, McIlroy spent some time with occasional putting coach Dave Stockton Sr. for a little maintenance and to specifically focus on putts inside 3 feet. There are more putts missed inside of that range at Riviera than any other course on the PGA Tour.

While there’s room for improvement, McIlroy was pleased with how things turned out on Day 1.

“I left myself a lot of longer putts and I felt like my pace was good and I lag putted well,” he said. “All of the things that you need to do around this golf course, I did pretty well today.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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