Rory McIlroy struggles through back injury at Tour Championship

ATLANTA — Rory McIlroy grimaced his way through a session at the East Lake Golf Club driving range like he was a weekend hacker trying to get out the kinks of the work week.

Problem was, McIlroy wasn’t teeing it up for a casual Saturday morning 18. He was less than 20 minutes from starting his defense of the FedEx Cup and the Tour Championship, with millions of dollars at stake. After a difficult beginning to his round, he managed to finish at even par on the round and -7 for the tournament, 3 strokes off the lead of -10.

The Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis indicated Thursday, several hours after the tournament began and about a half-hour before McIlroy’s tee time, that McIlroy suffered a “muscular issue” in his lower back earlier in the week while at home in Jupiter, Florida.

"When I play a lot of golf, especially the end of the season, I always have to manage my right side. My right side always gets pretty tight, my rib cage, intercostals, lats, like all the way down, right hip," McIlroy said after his round. "On Tuesday morning, I felt a little tight, and I went into my gym at home, and I just sort of foam-rolled and stretched. I went to grab something, and my whole right side just completely seized up, spasm."

After a few hours' work, he was able to continue, but matters only got worse Wednesday. "I was at the bottom of a squat, a body-weight squat, and my whole lower back spasmed, seized up. I couldn't move," he said. "I honestly couldn't address the ball [in the afternoon Wednesday]. So to get to where I am today is good."

McIlroy arrived at East Lake six hours before his tee time to begin treatment. Withdrawing, he said, was never on his mind. "So I was always going to tee off. It was just a matter of how I felt on the course," he said. "And it got progressively a little tighter as I went, but it will hopefully get loosened up here and just another 20 — or 18 hours of recovery and go again [Friday]."

After an awkward initial swing to start the tournament and a bogey at the second hole, McIlroy began to settle down, putting himself in position for birdie putts on the third and fourth holes.

After a difficult, two-bogey front nine, McIlroy began the long process of getting himself back into tournament contention, with a run highlighted by three birdies over four holes.

"The fact that I'm only going to be [3] off the lead," he said, "I'm over the moon about."