Rory McIlroy brought a torrid back nine to an end with a closing eagle three as he kept his hopes of a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am alive.
McIlroy looked like he was launching an assault on leader Sepp Straka when he birdied four of his first seven holes at Pebble Beach to get to ten-under-par but as the conditions turned cool and blustery, he fell off the pace.
The four-time major winner carded four bogeys on the 12th, 13th, 16th and 17th to slip eight shots off the lead but a 25-foot eagle putt on the last kept him just about in touch with Straka heading into the weekend.
It was an eventful round of 70 for the Northern Irishman which bumps him up to eight-under and into a share of 13th place with Shane Lowry.
Lowry’s attention was on Spyglass Hill and he carded a bogey free round of 70 with birdies coming at the par-5 1st and par-4 17th.
Seamus Power shot a one-under 71 at Spyglass Hill to lie in a share of 47th place on four-under.
Austrian Ryder Cup star Straka rolled in eight birdies in his second round of 65 to lead by three shots from Russell Henley and Cam Davis in fourteen-under-par.
Straka is projected to lead the FedEx Cup Standings and is on a good run of form having won the American Express recently.
“I don’t know, I mean, certainly a six-round run, last six rounds have been pretty nice,” he said. “No, I would not classify that as a run. I think Scottie Scheffler’s on a run.”
Straka has been feeling under the weather but hopes he can shake it off fully for the weekend and keep rolling in the putts.
“Made a few setup changes in my putting and that’s really helped out a lot. Palm Springs was the first time in a long time I felt that I had four really good putting rounds in a row. Yeah, I think that’s definitely made a huge difference.”
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