LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Rory McIlroy blasted yet another drive down the middle, this one finally coming to rest on the left side of the fifth fairway. As he headed off the tee box and toward the ball, a girl in the crowd shouted “I love you, Rory!”

Still adored, and still playing great, there was no better place than the golf course Thursday for one of the game’s most popular players, who was in the headlines for different reasons coming into this week’s PGA Championship.

“It’s always nice to be inside the ropes,” McIlroy said after shooting a 5-under 66 that had him tied for fifth, four shots behind Xander Schauffele, after the first round.

The 35-year-old McIlroy’s filing of divorce papers earlier in the week made for one of the more buzzy subplots in the leadup to the year’s second major. For the second straight day with a microphone in his face, he refused to talk about it.