Rory McIlroy carded a 65 to vault into the final group at the BMW Championship but after hitting just four fairways in that spell he knows he must play near perfect golf if he is to hunt down Wyndham Clark in a repeat of their 2023 US Open battle.
McIlroy shares second place with Patrick Cantlay on 12-under-par but they both trail reigning US Open champion Clark by five shots after he recovered from an opening double bogey to shoot 65 and run clear of the field.
It was McIlroy’s short game that kept him in contention as he was two out of two on sand saves and holed 97 feet of putts. The Masters champion birdied the third in a quiet front nine and started making inroads on the lead with birdies on 11 and 13. After a bogey on 14 he muscled his way into the final group with three birdies in a row from the 15th as he looks for his first win since April.
“I needed to be patient the last three days, because my game has, it’s been good in parts, but then it’s been a struggle in other ways. I didn’t hit my first fairway today until the 10th hole. Playing this golf course from the rough isn’t fun. But I hung in there, my short game saved me a couple of times. And I got some momentum coming in with those birdies on 15, 16 and 17 and then a good up-and-down at the last. I’m in a good spot going into tomorrow in terms of where I’m at on the leaderboard, but it’s going to take a heroic effort from one of us to catch Wyndham.
“I think you have to be disciplined with where you’re hitting your second shots. Being okay with leaving yourself a 40- or 50-footer and just 2-putting. I think my pace putting, my lag putting’s been really good this week. So from the rough it’s hard to get it close to the hole, so you’re having to rely on 2-putting a lot and I’ve done that well this week.”
McIlroy has been working hard on his game this week and despite appearing to be on song he is still carrying some swing issues but he is delighted with the improvement on last week’s finish of third last in Memphis.
“I’m trying to remember the last time I played two weeks in an a row, it’s been awhile. Honestly, I did the same thing a couple years ago going from Memphis to this tournament. This tournament was at Castle Pines. Similar sort of thing. Finished nearly dead last at Memphis, and then got it together and played a bit better at Castle Pines. So yeah, I would say if Memphis is always my first week coming back, I would say the next week’s always, I bet that it’s going to be better.”
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