Mark McGowan at Royal Portrush
Although Rory McIlroy took one less stroke to complete his second round than he had in his first, the world number two cut a marginally more frustrated figure as he shook hands with Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood on the 18th green at Royal Portrush.
Once again, huge galleries accompanied the home favourite throughout the round, and the cheers weren’t long in coming as a good tee shot – his best of the week on the first even though he still didn’t hit the fairway – was followed by a quality iron shot and an even better putt.
After a mixed day all round on Thursday, the gallery sensed that Rory was going to turn on the jets and assert his authority over the field, but his tee shot on number two suggested otherwise. After badly pushing it to the right, he was fortunate to remain in bounds but had to take an unplayable and eventually hole a tricky six-footer for par.
He went bogey-birdie-bogey over the following three, with each of the dropped shots coming after tee shots that left him badly out of position, and several other birdie chances went begging before the reached the turn at level-par for the day.
One big positive was that his driving, in particular was much improved from day one, and a colossal thump up 12 left him just 200 yards for his second into the par-5. After finding the dance floor, his eagle putt slid agonisingly by, but the tap-in birdie revitalised both McIlroy and the gallery, and he followed up by reducing the 477-yard 14th – playing as the hardest hole on the course – to a drive and a flick and holed the putt to get to -3.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t pick up any further strokes on the way in, but despite the minor frustrations, he’s happy to be here for the weekend after his heartbreaking near miss on the Friday back in 2019.
Royal Portrush doesn’t whisper. It roars.
Rory moves to three-under with a birdie. pic.twitter.com/R799V8viL0
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 18, 2025
“Another solid day,” he said afterwards. “A couple under, improved a little bit on yesterday, hit it in play a little bit more off the tee, which was nice to have some looks out of the fairway and into some of these greens.
“Yeah, it was a good day. I feel like I maybe could be a couple closer to the lead, but overall in a decent position heading into the weekend.”
Although he’d have had his eyes firmly set on a second Claret Jug this week, making it through to the weekend would’ve been a minor goal and he’s relishing the chance to experience the great support he’s enjoyed thus far for two more days.
“Yeah, I’m excited for that opportunity,” he said. “I didn’t have this opportunity six years ago, so to play an extra two days in this atmosphere in front of these crowds, I’m very excited for that. I feel like my game’s definitely good enough to make a run. So as I said, I’m excited for the weekend.”
Trailing Brian Harman by five shots and with several players in the afternoon wave who have a chance of setting the bar even higher, McIlroy knows that he’ll need to improve several facets of his game if he’s to put himself firmly in the mix on Sunday, but he also feels that it’s not a golf course that you can freewheel on.
“I don’t know if you can ever flow,” he admitted, “this golf is very demanding. It’s quite visually intimidating off the tee. I think you see the bunched nature of the leaderboard. It’s one of these places where you know the holes you have to make par, you know the holes you have to make birdie, and everyone sort of has to play the golf course the same way. Everything becomes pretty bunched.
“Yeah, you can, if you have one of those out of the blue days and you can get it going, but for the most part, you’re just trying to pick off your birdies on the easy holes and honestly like hold on with some of these really tough par-4s.”
McIlroy feels that he is a much more complete player than he was six years ago, and much better mentally prepared for the two days ahead as he had been for the two opening rounds.
“I feel like I let myself down more than I let the fans down,” he said, referencing his missed cut in 2019, “but I definitely felt like it was — yeah, it was a hard pill to swallow, but at the same time, I left myself too much to do.
“Then this time, yeah, I’ve just gotten better. I know what I need to do to get the best out of myself in an environment like that. I’ve been somewhat close to my best over the first two days in little bits here and there. I’m going to need to have it all under control and have it sort of all firing over the weekend to make a run.
“Yeah, it’s incredible to play in front of these fans. I was saying to Tim Barter at SKY, it was 20 years ago that I played the North of Ireland here, and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d be coming back as a Grand Slam champion with the support of a nation behind me trying to win an Open Championship.
“I count myself very grateful and very lucky that I’m in this position, and I’m excited for the weekend.”
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