Rory McIlroy left red-faced after complaint before PGA Championship

Rory McIlroy's PGA Championship got off to a tricky start on Thursday, with the golfer finding a tree with his first shot of the tournament.

Ironically, it came after the 37-year-old had bemoaned the lack of trees around the course at Aronimink.

Prior to the start of the second major of the season, McIlroy suggested that tournament organisers were wrong to take them down.

"It's basically bash driver down there and then figure it out," he said when asked about his strategy.

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"When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.

"I think about Oak Hill in 2023, here - same kind of thing."

McIlroy could easily have been forgiven for thinking that the lack of trees would enable a smoother pathway to the green.

Yet with his first shot of the competition, the two-time Masters champion sent his effort right into one, with the ball then ricocheting onto the rough.

Trees have been a big talking point at the course, with Aronimink chiefs clearing the biggest ones over the past two decades.

And McIlroy isn't the only golfer to discuss their removal, with Xander Schauffele also unimpressed with the revelopment that's been done.

"When I hear certain designers say they're restoring a course to 1915, I'm like, 'It probably takes a hundred years for a nice tree to grow- and now you're pulling it out just to say it was there before,'" he said.

"People keep talking about distance, but just put trees on a course."

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Jon Rahm has been equally as critical.

“I’ve been making this joke for the last few years where I see a lot of golf courses coming in saying, look, 100 years ago, this golf course was like this, there was no trees," he remarked.

“I’m like, well, in the back of my mind, they planted those trees with the future vision of having those trees in play, and now you’re taking them all out.

"While I see both points, I don’t know which one is more valid than the next.”

Meanwhile, McIlroy has been suffering with a blister going into the big event.

He's adamant he's fine to play, however, with the Northern Irishman taking steps to combat the issue.

He used extra padding, separated his little toe from the others and switched to a wider shoe that is half a size larger than normal.

"I figured it out and separated the little toe from the other ones and a bit of cushion around it definitely helped," he said.

"And then just going to a bigger shoe and a different style of shoe as well, a little wider and a little softer in the toe box."

McIlroy then completed nine holes of practice on Wednesday and came away encouraged by the progress.

"I was pleasantly surprised how good it felt," he said. "Walking downhill, whenever your foot slides into the very end of your shoe is when it maybe gives me a bit of bother, but it's totally fine.

"A mountain out of a molehill."

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