Video: This shot pretty much sums up Rory McIlroy’s first round of 2013

There wasn’t a lot you could say about Rory McIlroy’s first round of 2013 with his new clothes, his new clubs and his new, thicker wallet. The boy wonder was paired once again with Tiger Woods, his buddy and now coworker of sorts, and it was on live television and there was plenty of hype for a tournament that doesn’t mean a lot in the big scheme of this season.

But off Rory went with his Nike gear and his Nike clubs and apparently without a golf swing. McIlroy stumbled to an opening round 75 that included two double-bogeys and basically not much positive (Woods finished at even-par, saying afterwards that the windy day at Abu Dhabi was basically a survival day, which seemed about right with the leaders only at 5-under).

The swing you see above is Rory’s second shot on the par-5 18th, and well, yikes. The announcer there sums it up nicely when he says, “that’s as ugly a shot as I’ve seen Rory hit in a long, long time, what happened there?!”

Not to get on Rory’s back or anything, but I will simply say that this was a pretty big week in the young golfer’s life. He announced a change that will be a big part of his career for the next decade and he did it with a pretty big splash. His golf game will show up once more, don’t worry about that, and things will be fine before he leaves Abu Dhabi, but for now, there is Rory McIlroy hitting a snap-hook that even your dad would be disappointed with.

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