Rory McIlroy has driven the 403-yard par-4 9th twice but has otherwise lacked fireworks across his opening 36 holes of the Open Championship. Currently seven shots behind leader Lucas Herbert, he is keen to charge out of the traps early on Saturday.
McIlroy felt he played a little better today but was still disappointed with his 67 when he looked at the leaderboard in the mixed zone and saw the scores and some of the names lingering on the first page. He knows he has ground to make up from one-under-par but at least he is here for the weekend.
“Yeah, it was a little better. Yeah, I felt like I had momentum coming off the end of the front nine there with the two birdies on 8 and 9. I felt like I stalled a little bit on the back,” said the 2014 Open champion who lies T36th.
“I think the main objective today was to be here for the weekend, which I am. I felt like I left a couple out there. Then you look at the board and you see a couple of 62s, and you feel like you could have done a bit better.
“Yeah, get off to a decent start tomorrow. There’s a couple of guys up there, this will be sort of their first experience of playing in the lead at a major championship on the weekend, so there’s obviously some that are very experienced at it like Cam (Young) and like Sam (Burns) as well. I think if I can get off to a decent start tomorrow, be 4- or 5-under for the tournament, I’ll be right in it.”
Looking for early momentum, McIlroy found a birdie on the second before giving the shot back on the 6th. He threatened to go on a run when he birdied the 8th and drove the par-4 9th for the second straight day. But he left an 11-foot eagle effort short. Despite the back to back birdies, he left the 9th green frustrated.
He picked up another birdie on the par-5 14th but a bad break in the fairway bunker on the par-5 17th meant he couldn’t give himself a realistic birdie chance, although he did well to save par on the last.
McIlroy’s plan for the weekend is to be as aggressive as he can as long as the firm and fast course allows it.
“I’ve driven the ball so well the last two days. I think anytime I can get a driver in my hand, I’m going to try to. I just feel like with how I’m feeling with the driver, I think it’s a big advantage if I can get the ball down there and take out some of these fairway bunkers.
“I’ll continue to do that when I can, and then I’m still trying to figure out these greens a little bit. Yeah, I’ve struggled the last couple of days. It was a little better today, but still didn’t feel 100 percent comfortable. Hopefully try to figure that out as the week goes on.”
The highlight of McIlroy’s week so far has been driving the 9th in rounds one and two. Preparation and arriving to play the course as early and as often as possible has been a key strategy for McIlroy in the majors this year. But this tactic wasn’t one he had planned for.
“Honestly, the practice rounds I played were in a completely different wind direction. I didn’t even think about it. Then when I got on the tee yesterday and saw the wind, it was like, well, the corner on the right there to cover is like 335, and downwind it’s like, as long as I just strike it well, that should be fine.
“Then today I got there again — yeah, but it was never — honestly my game plan was to hit it to the top of the hill and hit a wedge on and go from there, but sometimes opportunities present themselves and you have to take them.”
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