McIlroy’s 2026 season seemed set to start similarly, fueling the full-throated title defense narrative. But just as that thought began to crystallize, the world No. 2 was reminded of what the smallest break in focus can lead to. McIlroy three-putted the third and fifth greens, leading to a pair of double bogeys that dropped him from the first page of the leaderboard to a distant six shots back of overnight leader Ryo Hisatsune.

It was shocking in the moment, stifling what was otherwise an incredibly solid debut round. He drove it great, hit his irons solid and was proficient around the greens. He putted well except for those lapses. And it could be that 45-minute stretch that he thinks about most, and deeply regrets come Sunday night.

For the second straight week, Scottie Scheffler will attempt a herculean comeback. He nearly pulled it off at the WM Phoenix Open, rallying from a 10-shot deficit to miss the Hideki Matsuyama-Chris Gotterup playoff by just one stroke.

He trails by 10 shots again this week after a frustrating even-par round on a very gettable day at Pebble Beach.

“Anything that kind of went wrong seemed to be going that direction and I just felt like I scored poorly,” Scheffler said. “I actually feel like I’m playing pretty well, just one of those days.”

Scheffler will kick himself for several uncharacteristic misses on approach, particularly on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes, the latter of which resulted in bogey. Scheffler lost more than two strokes on approach, a true anomaly for the TOUR’s top ball-striker. That, combined with a poor putting day, left him in a tie for 62nd. It will be an even tougher challenge to come back this week, with favorable scoring conditions likely leading to more low scores.

“You never know what the weather’s going to turn out to be like,” he said. “I’ll need a little bit of help up there.”

There aren’t many better pairings in pro golf than Jordan Spieth and Pebble Beach. The two get along quite nicely, both bold, daring and irresistible when the conditions are right. So it should be no surprise that Spieth is contending again on the Monterey Peninsula. A bogey-free 6-under 66 at Spyglass Hill has him right in the mix after one round.

It’s a welcome round after a surprising early exit from the WM Phoenix Open last week, typically one of Spieth’s best performances every year. He called his Friday 75 a “fluke,” the product of a bad mental day that twisted him in knots and left him without a weekend tee time.

“I was swinging it well, and I decided to tell myself I wasn’t. I just had a bad day,” he said.

Parting shots

👔 Tommy Fleetwood remains without an apparel sponsor, a rarity in today’s game. He played Thursday decked out in Pebble Beach gear. Not a bad life. “Who knows what’s going to happen in the future,” he said of any potential upcoming partnerships. For what it’s worth: Fleetwood’s caddie was wearing Malbon from head to toe.

6️⃣ Chris Gotterup birdied his first six holes on Thursday, the first to do so to begin a PGA TOUR event since Robert Streb in 2021. If you ask Gotterup, though, the streak is really nine. He birdied his final three holes en route to victory in Phoenix last week. “I’ll claim that.”

🤯 This is a doozy from stats guru Justin Ray … Ryo Hisatsune is the only player in more than 300,000 rounds dating back to 2004 to lose strokes off the tee, on approach and still shoot 62 or lower. Basically, the round was as improbable as it gets. He will need to improve on those areas if he hopes to stay atop the leaderboard.

Low scores are becoming a feature, not a bug at Pebble Beach. We narrowly avoided the single-round scoring record. The daily average settled at 68.25. Last year’s first round was the lowest ever (68.18). All five of the lowest single-round scoring averages at Pebble Beach have now come in the last three years. Still, Fleetwood is adamant that if the weather gets bad, as it was early in the week, Pebble Beach’s teeth will show. “I just find it hard to see somebody breaking par yesterday like in the conditions that I played in,” he said.