Rory McIlroy roars into contention at TPC Sawgrass with second-round 64
Saturday 14 May 2016 12:23, UK
Rory McIlroy equalled one record and narrowly missed out on another as he roared into contention with a second-round 64 at The Players Championship.
McIlroy became only the second player to cover the back-nine at TPC Sawgrass in 29 strokes - one day after Shane Lowry became the first - and, needing a birdie at his final hole to set a new overall course record, he made a mess of the long ninth and closed with a disappointing six.
The world No 3 had ground to make up after his first-day 72 left him nine behind Jason Day, and he set about taking advantage of the benign, early conditions with four consecutive birdies to begin his second round.
His putter was on the money straight away as he rolled in a 25-foot putt for a three at the 10th, and he got up and down from a greenside bunker at the next before finding the target from 15 feet at the 12th.
A pure 150-yard approach to inside three feet at 13 set up another gain, and he just missed out on a fifth straight birdie when he grazed the lip at 14 before getting back on track when he converted another precise iron to six feet at the next.
McIlroy then moved to seven under through seven holes as he drained a remarkable 55-foot putt from the left fringe at the long 16th, and he was agonisingly close to a two at 17 when his long-range putt pulled up two inches short of the cup.
A par at 18 tied Lowry's day-old record for the inward half, and McIlroy missed from 10 feet for birdie at the first before atoning with another deft up-and-down at the long second.
Further chances went begging at four and five and his birdie putt at the sixth did not catch enough of the hole to drop, but he revived his chances of breaking the course record with his seventh birdie of the day at the seventh.
He negotiated the 241-yard par-three eighth with a cast-iron par, and he looked well-placed to post the birdie he needed for a 62 until he came up short with his 80-yard third at the ninth and found the thick rough beside a bunker.
Faced with an awkward stance, McIlroy then duffed his pitch and missed his par putt from the fringe, taking a little gloss off what was an excellent day's work, and he admitted afterwards that he regretted not going for the ninth green in two.
"I've got it in my head with the ninth hole that any time that I have gone for the green it has not really worked out for me," McIlroy told Sarah Stirk at the Sky Cart. "I had a good number today and laid up with a nine iron.
"I probably had two iron to the front of the green. In hindsight, with that pin being on the left side, anywhere on the right I probably had a chance to get up and down. I thought get it within 100 yards and take my chances from there
and just didn't hit a great third shot and left myself in a difficult position."
With the breeze picking up for the later starters, McIlroy was delighted to have got the best out of perfect scoring conditions after moving over 70 places up the leaderboard.
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"It was benign, soft greens and the back nine you could not get it any easier, so to take advantage of that was really nice. I was going well and it would have been nice to make a four on the last, but 64 is still a great score and hopefully I'm not going to be too far behind going into the weekend.
"I hit a lot of quality shots today. I feel like my game has been under control the last four rounds so hopefully I can continue like that over the weekend."
