The escapologist in Rory McIlroy surfaced when most needed in this second round of the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club in the suburbs of Charlotte.
Having dug himself into something which threatened to be a rather big hole, with a missed cut a real possibility, the 27-year-old Northern Irishman rescued the situation with two birdies in his closing three holes of an eventful round to stay in the game.
Indeed, from the very start McIlroy did a pretty good imitation of the ultimate exponent of the art, the late, legendary Seve Ballesteros. On the 10th hole, his first of the second round, McIlroy’s approach to the green was pushed far right into the trees and ran down a cart path. It looked a lost cause, with the possibility of a stomach-churning double-bogey or worse staring him in the face.
Life wasn’t to be so cruel, though. After taking a free drop, into rough, McIlroy was left with no other option than to play the recovery shot through the gap in the trees. “I dropped it in a pretty bad lie, so I couldn’t carry it over the cart path. I just said, ‘okay, I’ll bounce it up the cart path and see where this goes’.”
He pulled off the outrageous shot, the ball gaining momentum off the path to run through and up the face of a bunker to settle just off the green. He made par, which - as his round unravelled later on - proved to be as important as any birdie.
However, it was those two late back-to-back birdies on the seventh and eighth that redeemed him, a 72 for 144, two-over-par, which left him 10 strokes adrift of leader Kevin Kisner but which got him into the weekend for the final two rounds. “Kis is on fire . . . . but take him out of the equation, I feel like I’m still right there in the tournament,” said an upbeat McIlroy.
Frustrated
He wasn’t so buoyant during his round, as his approach play consistently let him down (his average proximity to the flag was 45 feet) and the putter was cool for the most part. In fact, McIlroy was so frustrated after four bogeys in five holes from the second, which threatened to ruin any title aspirations and had him on the cut line, that he decided to stay in his own world during a lengthy delay on the seventh tee.
That was where his playing partners Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm noticed the formidable presence by the tee box of NBA star Andre Iguodala. While Fowler and Rahm engaged with the Golden State Warrior, McIlroy stayed away. Head down, he went through his yardage book, and cleared his mind for what would prove to be a late assault on a course that, up to that point, had got the better of him.
It was as if that period of reflection on the seventh tee re-focused him. On the three remaining holes, he hit huge drives: 313 yards on the seventh; 319 yards on the eighth, and 365 yards - over the trees down the left - on the ninth. The result of that aggressive play was a run of birdie-birdie-par, which brought McIlroy from flirting with the cut into a place to challenge over the weekend.
Leapfrog
What went through his mind on that seventh tee? “Whether I should go over and say hi to Andre or not. That’s the only thing I was thinking, I was a little pissed (off) and just gathered my thoughts. I knew there was a couple of chances coming up. I said to Harry (Diamond, his caddie), ‘Let’s birdie two of the last three’. And he said, ‘No, let’s birdie the last three’. So I was able to do the first part.”
To leapfrog over the bodies ahead of him and get within touching distance of Kisner, a player without a career top-10 finish in any Major, McIlroy will have to go low. But not as low as the 61 he once recorded in winning the Wells Fargo championship in 2015. Since then, Bermuda grass has been incorporated into the setup and made it a much tougher examination.
As McIlroy put it, “I guess a low round used to be a 61 or a 62. A low round now is a 66 or a 67. You’re playing your ass off to get that. I’d say, if I shoot two 67s over the weekend, I’m going to have a really good chance.”
Does he have that in him? “I do, for sure. If I drive it a little bit better,” he replied.
At one point seemingly dead and buried, McIlroy showed resolve down the stretch to rescue matters but with work to do. At least he is in a position to shape his own destiny. “I feel a lot better about myself. If I can get out (in the third round), and get off to hopefully a better start, I feel like I’ll still be right in this tournament. Two-over for the tournament instead of four-over is a much better position to be because even making two shots up on this golf course is tough at times. I feel good.”
