To build on the performance, McIlroy will have to avoid mishaps. Even his lowest opening score in 14 appearances at the Players exposed his penchant this season for blow-up holes.

Starting on No. 7, McIlroy opened with three straight birdies and added three more on Nos. 14, 16 and 17. But his drive on the par-4 18th found the water running the left side of the fairway, leading to the first decision on where to drop his ball.

McIlroy, with confirmation from playing partner Viktor Hovland’s caddie Shay Knight, settled on 293 yards from the hole on his way to a bogey. When McIlroy found the water at the par-4 No. 7, a meeting of minds didn’t materialize.

While McIlroy insisted his drive crossed land more than 300 yards from the hole and landed just above the red hazard line, Spieth and Hovland saw it differently. TV replays were inconclusive. Fans lined the other side of the fairway and enjoyed a limited view at best.

Spieth was particularly vocal.

“Everyone that I’m hearing that had eyes on it … saying they’re 100 percent certain it landed below the line,” Spieth said on the TV broadcast.

McIlroy’s response: “Who’s everybody, Jordan?”

McIlroy ultimately took a one-shot penalty and dropped the ball at the spot he deemed it landed and made double-bogey. But if the ball landed below the hazard line, a penalty and drop close to the tee box could have led to a higher score on the 452-yard hole.

“I think Jordan was just trying to make sure that I was doing the right thing,” McIlroy said afterward. “I was pretty sure that my ball had crossed where I was sort of dropping it.”

The hole took nearly a half hour to complete, but didn’t stem McIlroy’s momentum. The last time he shot 65 was during the second round of his 2019 victory at TPC Sawgrass.

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