PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – World No. 1 Rory McIlroy exited PGA National’s feared Bear Trap with a 32-footer for birdie at the 17th, then reached the par-5 18th in two shots (driver/5-iron) to set up one more birdie at the last. It was a nice swing in momentum – especially considering how his first 16 holes had gone.

On the final tee, the featured group of long hitters McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka stood a combined 20 over par, and in parts of the round, it was all the three could do not to throw up their hands and surrender to the harsh winds and penal conditions.

“It was tough,” said McIlroy, whose 3-over 73 beat Johnson by four and Koepka by five. “When nothing’s going your way and you don’t have anything to feed off, you don’t see many good shots and we’re all struggling, it was a grind out there. We’ll all go home and put our feet up tonight and get ready for tomorrow.”

All three are members of the PGA Tour’s Jupiter gang, with easy commutes from the front stoop to PGA National. But none of the three found much local hospitality in the golf course on Thursday. Walking to the 15th tee, McIlroy turned to Koepka and urged that the two try to make a couple birdies on the way in and get something out of the day. McIlroy would, playing his last four in 2 under.

McIlroy has experienced just about every emotion possible at the Honda. He won the tournament in 2012, edging a hard-charging Tiger Woods, walked off the golf course after 27 holes in 2013 when he was struggling with his swing and new equipment, and nearly won another Honda title in ’14, when he was part of a four-man playoff won by Russell Henley.

McIlroy double-bogeyed two of his first five holes to open his round, needing to reload a 2-iron on the very first tee after high winds drifted his opening tee ball to the right, and out of play. He made 6. He’d birdie the par-5 third, give a shot back at the fourth, then dump a tee shot into water at the par-5 fifth, leading to his second double.

“The conditions were obviously very tricky from the start,” he said. “You know, from the first hole, it was always going to be a day like that. I feel like I salvaged something out of the round the last couple holes, but it was just a day to keep trying, not to give up and know that anything around level, 1-over, 2-over par still isn’t out of it.”

McIlroy sits eight shots behind first-round leader Jim Herman, and with conditions expected to be tamer for his Friday morning tee time, he knows one solid round can get him back into the mix.

McIlroy has been on a tear since summer. Beginning with last July’s Open Championship at Hoylake, which he won, he has finished out of the top 15 only one time around the globe; in his last six starts, he’s been first or second five times.

Thursday’s 73 in demanding conditions wasn’t something that was going to get him too riled. After all, McIlroy hadn’t teed it up in competition since winning in Dubai on Feb. 3, and he hit only eight greens in regulation at PGA National’s Champion course.

“I’m coming off a three-week break and tough conditions to come back out in,” he said. “I knew that my game was there. Today wasn’t what I wanted to start with, obviously, but you know, if I can get it into red numbers tomorrow, I’m right back in the tournament.”