Rory McIlroy makes quick turnaround to share 5-way BMW lead - ESPN

ST. LOUIS — Rory McIlroy might not be as far away as he thought four days ago, playing bogey-free at Bellerive for a 6-under 64 that gave him a share of the lead Thursday in the BMW Championship with three other U.S. Open champions and Chris Gotterup.

Four days brought a big change for Scottie Scheffler, too. The world's No. 1 player went from an eight-shot victory in the postseason opener to feeling under the weather and having to rally for a 72, his highest opening round since the U.S. Open in June.

Scheffler's voice was hoarse when he said he didn't want to stop to talk, saying only that he was sick as he headed for the locker room.

McIlroy returned from a four-week break after the British Open with plenty of rust and very little golf and failed to break par in any of the four rounds for the first time in more than five years at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

He went home to Florida and worked with swing coach Michael Bannon.

«I went home and I worked on a few things and at least got myself back in a frame of mind where like I felt like I'm at least back on the right path of what I'm doing with my game and with my swing,» McIlroy said. «It's certainly a work in progress. Days like this are encouraging, obviously. There's still a lot of work to be done.»

McIlroy is fond of saying players never remember what it's like to play bad when they're going well and they think they'll never play good again when the game is going poorly. It's never that far away, and Thursday was a reminder of that.

Bellerive originally was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and later updated by his son, Rees, who had the reputation as the «Open Doctor» for trying to modernize and toughen courses. While soft conditions contributed to a bunched