Rory McIlroy hit just the second hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career on Thursday, a remarkable slam dunk ace on Hole 15 of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Spyglass Hill.
The four-time major champion, playing in his first PGA Tour event of the year, took a wedge and drilled his shot 119 yards directly into the hole without bouncing, before celebrating with his caddie and playing partners, including Ryder Cup teammate Ludvig Åberg. His only other hole-in-one on the Tour came at the Travelers Championship in 2023.
“It’s such an elevated tee that the ball’s in the air and you know it’s online, but you don’t know whether to say ‘Go’ or ‘Sit’ or ‘Spin’ or ‘Release’ or whatever,” he said afterwards. “You’re looking at it and you’re watching where it might land on the green and the thing just disappears.
“It was a good swing, good wedge shot. It was obviously a nice little moment.”
Another of McIlroy’s Ryder Cup teammates, Shane Lowry, emulated the 26-time PGA Tour winner with his own ace at Pebble Beach’s iconic Hole 7, which he celebrated no less fervently despite the ball taking the more traditional route of landing on the green and rolling in.
It was the third of Lowry’s PGA Tour career, following holes-in-one at the Masters in 2016 and the Players Championship in 2022, and it marked the first time since 2009 that the Pebble Beach tournament has seen more than one ace in a single round, according to Sky Sports.
Both McIlroy and Lowry finished on six-under-par, two shots behind the leader, American Russell Henley. Jake Knapp, Justin Rose, Cam Davis, Sepp Straka, Rasmus Højgaard and Viktor Hovland each finished one shot behind Henley.
The tournament also saw the return of Scottie Scheffler, who was playing in his first competitive tournament of the year after sustaining what he called a “stupid” injury to his hand while rolling out ravioli dough with a wine glass on Christmas Day.
The world No. 1, who missed two tournaments to start the year, opened with a bogey but quickly settled in and made sure it was his only one of the day.
According to golf analyst Justin Ray, it was the 100th PGA Tour round since the beginning of 2022 in which Scheffler has played and made one or fewer bogeys. The American finished five-under-par.
“I like what I saw today,” he said afterwards, per The Associated Press. “I hit a few errant shots out there, but overall kept the course in front of me for the most part, so I was able to make a decent amount of birdies.”
The second round of the tournament begins on Friday.
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