Rory McIlroy was pleased to make the cut at the Players Championship as he recovered from a back injury and avoid adding another event to his pre-Masters schedule but he was frustrated that a cold putter left him ten shots behind going into the weekend.
McIlroy admits that his back felt almost perfect on day two at Sawgrass and his only reason for grimacing was when he saw several good putts turn their nose up at the hole, including at the closing par-5 9th when he saw an eagle putt somehow stay out after finding the green in two from 279 yards.
There was certainly very little wrong with his back as he enjoyed an improved driving performance, hitting 9 of 14 fairways but he ranks 90th in putting for the week which has proven to be his achilles heel again although he made a crucial par save on 18 from 11 feet and another for bogey on the 4th to leave him needing just one birdie on his way home to make the cut.
As it stands, he is ten off the pace on one-over after a 71 with his only other bogey coming on 14 but he supplemented those with birdies on 10, 16 and 9. But he was disappointed he wasn’t at least in the fringes of contention.
“I wish I was further up the leaderboard,” he confessed. “I felt like I played well enough today to be up the leaderboard, I just couldn’t get a putt to drop. I feel like I hit the ball a bit better today than I did yesterday also, so hopefully I’ve done enough to get into the weekend and have another two days at it.”
As for his back, he feels fine and it should be full steam ahead for the Masters next month.
“No, because I’m a little more upright with the driver with the longer stuff. It’s more when I get over it. So chipping yesterday or like when the ball was below my feet is when I — not that I felt it, but it was more — it was okay. It was just like I had a hard time trusting it, more so than anything else.
“But today it was, you know, I think having a day where I was like, okay, that was fine, I didn’t really feel anything, I woke up this morning felt fine, so, yeah.”
McIlroy has made 88% of his cuts on the PGA Tour and he could have easily been forgiven for missing this one. But whether he is chasing glory at the top of leaderboards or scrapping to make it for the weekend, he gives each and every shot his maximum.
“I’m happy to be here for the weekend. I’m happy to get two more runs at it. So yeah, like, it would have sucked to be going home this afternoon, so to hang around and hopefully play two more days, that’s a win.
“I think it does (missing a cut) wound your pride. I think, I don’t know, I have 280-odd starts on the PGA TOUR and I’ve missed maybe less than 30 cuts. So, yeah, I’m proud of that. But then in golf, as everyone knows, you have to sort of blow it off and move on to the next thing. But if I had have missed the cut I probably would have added an event going into the Masters, so hopefully I’m here for the weekend and I don’t have to do that.”
Meanwhile, Shane Lowry will have the weekend off after five consecutive events after he missed the cut on five-over with a second round of 73.
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