Rory McIlroy is struggling in the first round of the 2021 Masters Tournament. He has a two-way miss going off the tee, and that's meant he's missed right and left.
Things have been going so poorly for McIlroy on Thursday that he actually hit his own father with an errant shot.
On the par-4 seventh hole at Augusta National, McIlroy missed left off the tee, leaving him with a small window to advance the ball toward the green. Hitting out toward the right, McIlroy then hit a patron greenside with his ball. Turns out, that person was Rory McIlroy's father, Gerry.
Rory's ball hit Gerry in the calf, ricocheted off of it and back into shorter grass some 10 yards away.
McIlroy wound up making a bogey 5 on the hole to move to 3 over for the Masters.
The four-time major winner, who needs to win the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, is working with a new instructor in Pete Cowen. Cowen is renown for his work with superstar golfers the world over, including Brooks Koepka. However, they recently started working together, and their journey is just starting. It's reasonable to expect, then, that McIlroy could have some tough times this week.
