McIlroy's first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour

American Former world number one Rory McIlroy, after 13 years playing on the PGA Tour with 3,253 par-3 holes, only had one ace, at hole 8, round 1 of the Traveler Championship.

The tournament took place at the TPC River Highlands par-70 course in Connecticut. On the opening day of June 22, McIlroy went from hole 1 to hole 8 with a 5-iron, 214 yards from the flag.

McIlroy's first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour.

Seven holes before, McIlroy had one birdie, two bogeys. With one shot on hole 8, he pulled his round score to -1.

The 34-year-old Northern Irishman then birdied the ninth hole and repeated the feat with luck on the par-four 10th.

Here, McIlroy hit a tree on the left side of the fairway. After impact, the ball bounced into the rough on the right. His second shot missed the green but hit the slope and still landed 4.8 meters from the hole, allowing McIlroy to add a finishing putt.

McIlroy was -3 after the 10th hole. However, he played the rest of the game erratically, including a third bogey in eight holes on the final hole, along with two birdies. As a result, the A-list star on the PGA Tour finished T46 with a score of -2 while the leaderboard was at -10, belonging to Denny McCarthy, and T2 (-8) had two former major champions - Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott.

The 2023 Travelers Championship has a $20 million prize fund as a special event, bringing together 38 faces in the world's top 50, including eight players in the top 10. This tournament was inaugurated in 1952, and McIlroy has never finished in the top 10 in the last four times competing in the past seven years.

McIlroy turned professional in 2007. Three years later, he joined the PGA Tour, where he has won four majors in 23 tournaments and has spent 122 weeks atop the world's professional golf rankings.

McIlroy watches the ball after his tee shot on the first hole of the first round of the 2023 Travelers Championship. Photo: AP

However, McIlroy has been without a prestigious trophy for nine years, since his fourth, at the 2014 PGA Championship. Since then, he has participated in 34 majors with four top-3 finishes but has not been able to win, including the 2023 US Open, on June 18. In this tournament, McIlroy finished second, one stroke behind champion Wyndham Clark. Receiving $2.16 million from this year's US Open, McIlroy has a total prize money of approximately $75.17 million on the PGA Tour.

After missing out on his latest major, McIlroy admitted he was fed up with the recurring "near-win" scenario. However, the A-list star on the PGA Tour remains optimistic. "I'm willing to take on the painful experience of the last hundred rounds like the US Open just to get the next major."

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