HAVEN, Wis. – Rory McIlroy walked with the usual boyish bounce in his step. He smashed a driver on the longer holes at Whistling Straits. He even jogged up and down a couple of small hills.
If he felt any discomfort in his left ankle, which he injured in early July while kicking around a soccer ball with friends, it wasn't apparent Saturday.
In a brief interview as he walked quickly from the 18th green to the parking lot, McIlroy deemed his first practice round for the 97th PGA Championship a success.
"Yeah, it's good," McIlroy said. "Good to get a look at the course. Obviously, I have decent memories from five years ago. Yeah, good."
McIlroy, 26, of Northern Ireland, finished one shot out of a playoff in the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits. He is the defending PGA champion and is ranked No. 1 in the world by a narrow margin over Jordan Spieth.
But McIlroy hasn't played a competitive round since injuring the ankle July 4. He announced two days later that he had sustained a "total rupture" of his left anterior talofibular ligament.
Last week, McIlroy posted a workout video on Instagram that showed him balancing on his left foot on a foam pad and tossing a weighted ball underhand to mimic a golf swing. A day later, he posted video of himself hitting one drive, fueling speculation that he would begin his comeback at Whistling Straits.
He teed off under overcast skies around 8 a.m. Saturday, played all 18 holes from the tips and wasted little time getting around the course, walking quickly between shots. He said he shot "a couple over" par.