McIlroy will be ‘difficult to beat’

RORY McIlroy made a superb start to his bid for a record £1.25 million jackpot at the Lake Malaren Shanghai Masters as he fired an eight-under-par 64.

The US Open champion was playing in a group alongside Lee Westwood, with whom McIlroy shared a manager – Andrew “Chubby” Chandler – until recently moving to join Ryder Cup partner Graeme McDowell at Dublin-based Horizon.

McIlroy’s impressive bogey-free round gave him a one-shot lead, with American Hunter Mahan his closest challenger.

“If I can play as solid for the next three days as I did today, I feel as if I’ll be very difficult to beat,” said McIlroy.

Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Padraig Harrington shared third place, three off the lead, after rounds of 67, with American Anthony Kim and China’s Li Chao carding 68s.

Westwood finished on 69, which put him level with John Daly, Robert Karlsson, YE Yang and Retief Goosen, while Colin Montgomerie was one further adrift, along with South African duo Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen.

The tournament is a 30-man invitational event, not aligned with the main tours, offering the highest first prize in professional golf. There are no ranking points at stake at the tournament and PGA players did not need a competing-event release in order to take part.

The PGA Tour was not pleased about the event, which is being run by IMG, particularly since 16 PGA players are in the field, but the players themselves are excited about the new tournament. “With a small field like we have here, and I think I may get in trouble for saying this, but I’m kind of glad it’s not sanctioned by the European or PGA Tour,” said John Daly. “It shows that China is doing something on their own.”