Rory McIlroy is heading back to the drawing board after a frustrating opening round at the PGA Championship, where his driving troubles resurfaced in spectacular fashion. The world No. 2 carded a four-over-par 74 on Thursday at a breezy Aronimink, a score that left him searching for answers.

"I'm just not driving the ball well enough to give myself enough scoring opportunities," McIlroy admitted. "That's pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well. I just need to try to figure it out. I honestly thought I had figured it out."

The six-time major winner from Northern Ireland had shown promising form in practice and recent tuneup events, but under the bright lights of major championship pressure, those gains evaporated. "Once I get under the gun, it just seems like it starts to go a little bit wayward on me," he said.

This isn't a new issue for McIlroy. Even during his triumphant Masters victory last month, he struggled off the tee—most notably on the final hole, where he found himself in the pine straw on an adjacent hole before scrambling to salvage a bogey and secure the win. That escape act wasn't repeatable at Aronimink.

Thursday's round was a tale of two halves. McIlroy started with a bogey-birdie on the back nine, then steadied the ship with 10 consecutive pars. But the wheels came off in dramatic fashion down the stretch, as he closed with five bogeys in his final six holes—including the last four in a row.

"I started missing fairways," McIlroy explained. "It's hard. I didn't have great angles either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky. I felt like I did OK... then I just got on that bogey train at the end."

The swing issues have been a recurring theme throughout the year. "I miss it right and then I want to try to correct it and then I'll overdo it and I'll miss it left," he said. "It's a little bit of back and forth that way."

McIlroy was quick to dismiss any concerns about the right pinky toe issue that cut short his Tuesday practice round, insisting it wasn't a factor. Instead, he found Aronimink particularly punishing when out of position, noting that a few bad lies—including one on the 10th hole that he described as "as bad as I've seen"—added to his woes.

For a golfer who has long built his game around the driver, these struggles are especially disheartening. But if McIlroy's track record has taught us anything, it's that he's capable of turning things around. The question now is whether he can find the solution before it's too late to make a run at the Wanamaker Trophy.