five bunker shots, four dropped shots, three missed putts from short range, two poor chips and one blow into the water and that was just the front nine it's fair to say rory mcilroy's curious florida funk continued in the opening round of the wgc cadillac championship at doral on thursday at least on the back nine there were enough good blows on show to hint it will not be too long before we can enjoy a more customary service the world number one had an eagle and three birdies in a blistering five hole spell to come home in 33 blows and salvage a 73 while that might have been barely ok in the context of the field as a whole it was a radical improvement on what appeared a likely score at halfway mcilroy placed the blame on his outward half on being too tentative 'after nine holes i thought there was really not much more to lose, so go ahead and be more aggressive,' he said 'it paid off a little and the eagle was really important hopefully i can get off to a better start in the second round and get back into it' rory mcilroy hits a shot from the fairway during the first round of the cadillac championship in florida  mcilroy lines up a putt on the 16th green during a difficult opening round for the world no 1  mcilroy tries to play his way out a trouble after landing his shot in the bunker on the 17th hole  he's certainly got some work to do mcilroy will start out no fewer than 11 shots off the pace set by former american ryder cup player jb holmes given there was a decent breeze blowing for most of the day, his 62 was a remarkable effort fellow american ryan moore shot 66 world number three henrik stenson carded a 69 while welshman jamie donaldson, runner up here last year, composed a 70 comprising 16 pars and two birdies as for mcilroy, a desperately mediocre outward half of 40 strokes meant he had played his first 45 holes in the sunshine state this year, taking in last week's two rounds at the honda classic, in a startling 11 over par the world number one thought he had ironed out some difficulties he experienced in the wind last week but there was precious sign of it at this stage world no 2 bubba watson plays his second shot on the 10th hole ad the american finished one under par  henrik stenson kept the heat on the leaders as the swede finished the day's play three under par  opening up from the tenth offered the chance of a flying start, since there are two par fives in the first three holes but mcilroy drove into fairway bunkers on both to squander the chance for early gains just to compound the frustration, his approach to the par four 11th was a metre short of being perfect, and plugged in a greenside bunker to bring about an unlucky bogey so it continued every good iron shot he played he couldn't take advantage, while every bad shot invariably led to more damage to his scorecard two over par coming to the 18th, mcilroy became another victim of this punishing hole as he found the water from the middle of the fairway with his approach, and failed to get up and down for a bogey from the side of the green welshman jamie donaldson composed a 70 comprising 16 pars and two birdies  it wasn't until his 13th hole that we got the first glimpse of the real rory a sumptuous long iron to the difficult par three fourth set up his first birdie of the day and lit the spark on a run that saw him birdie two of the next three holes before registering an eagle three at the 8th even during this spell, however, there were sloppy bogeys at the 5th and the 9th no wonder he headed straight to the range afterwards two players who will not be remembering their rounds with any affection were phil mickelson and stephen gallacher mickelson's 74 was notable only for the fact it was the first time in 190 consecutive rounds on the pga tour that he had failed to register a single birdie poor gallacher's nightmare was even more complete the scot put two balls into the water at the 18th to complete an awful 84 it was his worst competitive score in 455 events as a pro lee westwood, who became the first man to play in 50 wgc events, was one over par after nine 
rory mcilroy mcilroy bubba watson henrik stenson welshman jamie donaldson last year lee westwood 50th wgc
rory mcilroy played a disastrous front nine in the opening round of the wgc cadillac championship at doral . even at this early stage, mcilroy had fallen a distance behind his playing partners, world no 2 bubba watson and no 3 henrik stenson . welshman jamie donaldson, runner up at the tournament last year, composed a 70 comprising 16 pars and two birdies. lee westwood, playing in his 50th wgc event was one over par after nine 