An eagle, four birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey all register on Rory McIlroy’s round-two card at the Men’s Olympic Golf event at Paris’ Le Golf National, and the world number three finds himself six shots back at the halfway mark.
Ultimately, disappointment will be his prevailing mood after covering his opening five holes in -3 thanks to an eagle on the par-5 third and a birdie on the fifth. In fact, he was unfortunate not to register the rarest of birds – an albatross – on the third as his long-iron from 260 yards appeared to pitch into the cup before bouncing out and coming to rest inside five feet.
While waywardness off the tee was an issue on day one, he hit all six of the fairways on the opening eight holes in round two, only missing the ninth in the first cut, but it was a three-putt from 31 feet on the par-3 eighth that halted his early momentum as he was punished for being heavy-handed with the birdie putt, but he got that shot back on the par-5 following hole and made the turn at -3 for the day and -6 overall.
After a good drive on the 10th, his approach shot came up a couple of yards short and found the bunker with the pin cut just a couple of paces beyond and had to take his medicine and give himself a long par putt that he’s nestle close.
From there, he’d par the following five holes, disappointingly failing to par-5 14th after putting himself in the mayor’s office off the tee. A superb tee shot on 16 set up another birdie, and with tournament leader Hideki Matsuyama making a mess of the 18th up ahead, things were looking up, but the worst swing of the day came on the 17th tee where he pulled his drive well left and was forced to take a penalty drop.
He’d go on to make a double, and after such a bright start, to reach the 18th at -1 for the day seemed like a couple over after the chances he’d given himself, but it was back to vintage Rory on the 18th as he split the fairway and then took the most aggressive of lines with his 190-yard approach, taking on the water and finding the narrowest part of the green and rolling in the resulting five-footer to make part-amends for the 17th.
“To play the last three in level-par and to have a double bogey in there, it’s, you know, two good birdies on 16 and 18 but obviously with the six in the middle,” he said afterwards. “Similar story to yesterday, just a few too many mistakes. [I’m] making the birdies and hitting the good shots, just need to try to limit the mistakes over the weekend.
“To be only two-under-par through 10 was probably a poor return for how I played, but it’s one of those courses where you just have to stay patient. You know you have birdie chances and I made a couple coming in but it was just offset by that mistake on 17.”
Despite the deficit, he’s seen enough quality shots and given himself enough chances over the first 36 holes to retain hope that he may yet be in the medal shakeup come Sunday, particularly thanks to the closing birdie which was akin to picking up a stroke-and-a-half on the field.
“I think so,” he replied when asked if he still had a chance. “At five-under, I think third [fourth] position at the moment is nine-under, so only four back of Bronze, so I think I’m right there.”
Matsuyama’s final-hole double bogey dropped him back to -11 overall, with Tommy Fleetwood who was playing alongside the Japanese also dropping a shot at the last and joining him in a three-way tie with Xander Schauffele who set the clubhouse target early on.
Had Fleetwood birdied the last and carded a nine-under 62, he’d have broken the course record, but had to settle for a 64 instead.
Jon Rahm occupies solo fourth place on -9, while Tom Kim, 2021 Bronze Medalist C.T Pan and Belgian Thomas Detry, whose 63 was the round of the day, are in a three-way tie for fifth one shot behind Rahm.
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