Sports Desk

Defending champion Rory McIlroy made a solid start to the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune set the early pace with a 10-under 62.

Hisatsune, 23, was six under at the turn and concluded a stunning performance with four more birdies on the back nine on the PGA Tour’s first signature event of the season.

Northern Ireland’s McIlroy is still in contention six shots back after carding a four-under 68 in California.

But it was a case of what might have been for McIlroy, who opened with consecutive birdies on the 10th and 11th holes and another on the 17th at Spyglass Hill, with the highlight of his front nine coming when he chipped out of a greenside bunker on the 14th for an eagle.

However, his progress was checked after the turn with double bogeys at the two par-three holes – the third and the fifth – when his putter ran cold.

While the world number two picked up shots on the second, fourth and ninth, he has ground to make up in Friday’s second round, although not as much as the man directly above him in the rankings, Scottie Scheffler.

The American, who has not finished outside a top 10 place since last year’s Player’s Championship, struggled to a disappointing even par 72.

With the opening two rounds of the event split across two courses, Scheffler’s friend and compatriot Sam Burns fared much better at Pebble Beach golf links, to end the day in second on nine under alongside Keegan Bradley.

Chris Gotterup, a two-time winner already this season, began with six successive birdies and is well placed at eight under along with Tony Finau and Patrick Rodgers.

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick is at six under and Tommy Fleetwood and Ireland’s Shane Lowry made solid starts to sit at five under with Englishman Harry Hall one further back.

With a $20m (£14.7m) purse available, 18 of the top 20 players in the world are competing in the 80-man field, with Pebble Beach hosting Saturday and Sunday’s third and fourth rounds.

With the noise around Arsenal and their history under Arteta when trying to win the title, the Gunners boss was asked if he needs to ensure that his side do not panic and remain focused on their task.

“That’s what we have to do,” he said. “I mean we are going to be willing and preparing to win every single match and the only thing that we can do is focus on that and raise the levels collectively and individually to be better than the opponent every week.

“It’s just the things that we have to do, that’s the most important thing.”

Before Manchester City‘s dramatic win against Liverpool on Sunday, it looked as though Arsenal would be nine points clear.

But after Erling Haaland’s late penalty to secure the three points and their win against Fulham on Wednesday, the gap was reduced to three points and the pressure was put back on to the Gunners.

When asked if playing after City is bringing a new pressure to his team, Arteta said: “I don’t think so, I think we played well after them a few times this season and we have won games.”

Of the 17 games in which Arsenal have scored first in the Premier League this season, the draw at Brentford was just the second time they have failed to win, along with their loss to Manchester United in January.

Midfielder Declan Rice could not have put it better: “This is a rollercoaster of a season.

“You can’t be naive to think this is going to be easy. We are playing against the best teams week in, week out. We have to keep pushing and believing in ourselves, controlling the controllables.

“We have to block out the outside noise. We have done that really well. People are going to talk up the title race and Arsenal but we have a really calm group.”