Rory McIlroy plays through back injury, shoots 74 at THE PLAYERS Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy shot 2-over 74 in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship while showing signs of rust as he worked his way back from a back injury.

McIlroy’s status was uncertain entering Thursday after arriving at TPC Sawgrass for the first time Wednesday afternoon and doing minimal prep work.

He himself called it a “game-time decision” when he met with the media Wednesday, but he felt “100 percent” good to go when he returned to the course Thursday.

“Honestly, overall it was fine,” McIlroy said. “Got a little bit tired at the end of the day, but yeah, it was actually all pretty good.”

The bigger issue was not any discomfort; it was rust. McIlroy’s last round of any kind – practice or competitive – was the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard last Friday.

“It’s weird, I obviously played on Friday; it’s not as if I’ve taken a ton of time off,” McIlroy said. “But just felt like unbelievably rusty out there.”

But McIlroy was unable to do much prep work at all. He hit about 30 shots on Wednesday afternoon, then chipped and putted on the last six holes of TPC Sawgrass. But the conditions he experienced Wednesday were unlike anything he experienced Thursday after rain swept through Northeast Florida, delaying his start time by 30 minutes and softening the golf course considerably.

McIlroy noticed the rust most in his short game, particularly with downhill lies, which required him to bend a little further and put a bit more strain on his back. Those struggles began on the second hole. Greenside to the par-5 after two strokes, McIlroy duffed his first chip before nearly jarring the second one to save par. His first bogey came at the fourth after he ran a greenside chip 12 feet past the hole and missed the comebacker for par. He made bogey at the fifth, too, though that was the result of a slightly errant tee shot that got unlucky as it stopped on a severe downslope in the rough. McIlroy’s lone birdie came on the sixth with a stroke of brilliance out of a fairway bunker, spinning his approach within a foot. He made 11 pars and a bogey from there, the last dropped shot coming on the 11th hole, which he made a mess of from tee to green.

“I’m glad I got through the round,” said McIlroy, who is seven shots back of the overnight leaders. “Hopefully tonight goes well and I’ll get out there tomorrow, and I was trying to just get back to even par for the day on that back nine. Couldn’t quite get there. … But starting with a couple of sort of birdie chances tomorrow on the back, so as I said, try to get it back to even par, and honestly, I don’t feel like I’m that far away.”

McIlroy didn’t expect much change to his routine Thursday night, “Just treatment and maybe some stim and whatever else, but actually not really.”

McIlroy tees off the 10th hole on Friday at 8:52 a.m. ET.