After a deluge of rain, the sun shone at Torrey Pines and Rory McIlroy responded with a round of 67 to climb to within three of the lead at the Genesis Invitational.
McIlroy got off to a rampant start with birdies on the third and fifth before three in a row from the eighth took him to five-under. Bogeys on 12 and 14 only stalled his momentum briefly and he rallied with two birdies in his last four holes to get back to five-under and into fourth place.
World number one Scottie Scheffler is two shots ahead of McIlroy in second, with Denny McCarthy on six-under in third, but everybody is looking up at Davis Thompson who birdied the last to edge in front on eight-under after a 66.
For McIlroy, he felt it was a similar performance from tee to green whatever the weather but he was able to roll in a few more putts in the better conditions.
“I think when you get conditions like we had yesterday, it’s sort of hard to putt. You’re rolling it down there and if the ball goes in, it goes in. If it doesn’t — especially when you get poa greens like this and they start to get soft, you’re going to miss some putts. I hit good putts and they’re going to miss.
“I think you have to be just so accepting on greens like this. Today I did my best to roll the ball on the right line and try to get the right speed and thankfully a few went in.”
Golf fans will be hoping both McIlroy and Scheffler can remain neck and neck over the weekend. The World number one was 45th in strokes gained off the tee but led the way around the greens and was 7th in putting.
McIlroy was 2nd in strokes gained off the tee but if he is to keep pace with Scheffler and turn this Signature Event into a box office shootout he will need to play the par fives better. He has only birdied the ninth so far.
“I need to take advantage of the par 5s better, I haven’t played the par 5s that well the first couple of days. So yeah, I need to do that, need to do that better especially when a golf course like this is playing so tough, you need to birdie the easy holes and the chances that it presents. Luckily I made up for that in other areas today. It was nice to get a couple back after the two bogeys on 12 and 14.
“Yeah, I don’t see this course getting much easier as the week goes on. Yeah, as you said, picking your spots and being conservative to some hole locations and yeah, trying to pick up shots on the birdie chances.”
Meanwhile, after three bogeys in his first fourteen holes a timely eagle on the par-5 6th breathed life into Seamus Power’s charge as he battled to a one-over 73.
The West Waterford man is in a share of eighth place on two-under-par.
Shane Lowry is on two-over after back to back rounds of 73.
Leave a comment