Two-time winner Rory McIlroy was hoping practice made perfect as he battled to avoid missing the cut in the US PGA Championship for the first time in his career on Friday.
McIlroy lifted the Wanamaker Trophy in 2012 and 2014 and has recorded three other top-eight finishes in seven appearances in the final major of the year, but struggled to an opening four-over-par 74 at Baltusrol.
The longest putt McIlroy holed was just seven feet and he needed 34 more to finish a birdie-free round - his fourth in 115 major rounds and second this year - nine shots off the lead held by American Jimmy Walker, with the halfway cut predicted to fall at one over.
With the searing heat forcing tournament officials to water the greens during play, McIlroy said he would wait until temperatures cooled before returning to the course to work on his putting.
And the 27-year-old world number four was as good as his word, arriving at 6.15pm and spending more than an hour on the putting green under the watchful eye of coach Michael Bannon.
''Tee to green is not the problem and I'm driving the ball as well as ever I think, but when I get to the greens it's a different story," a frustrated McIlroy said.
''I really struggled with the pace. They look much quicker than they are and two or three times I had putts within 12 feet that were downhill and left them short.
''I need to be more aggressive with my stroke, shoot something in the mid-60s and get into the weekend. That's the first objective. I will stay as patient as I can and try to turn it around.''
Walker held a one-shot lead over England's Ross Fisher, former champion Martin Kaymer and Argentina's Emiliano Grillo, with Open champion Henrik Stenson and Andy Sullivan among those a shot further back.
Just 11 days after lifting the Claret Jug with a record-breaking performance at Royal Troon, Stenson carded an opening 67 to boost his chances of matching McIlroy's achievement in 2014 of winning the Open and US PGA in the same season.
''It's going to be a great season for me, but at the same time I want to give myself a chance to try to make it the best season,'' Stenson said after outscoring playing partners and fellow 2016 major winners Danny Willett and Dustin Johnson by four and 10 shots respectively.
''I still want to focus and get back into it. With more time (between events) it would have made it easier to recharge, but at the same time I feel I can carry that momentum I had at the Open Championship and I guess the start shows that we're not too far away when we teed it up again."
Source: PA
