Having sat out the opening stop of the PGA Tour’s end-of-season playoff stretch Rory McIlroy arrived in Maryland eager to find some fast fluency.
At the halfway mark of the BMW Championship, the Irishman looks to be trending somewhat in that direction. But only after he dug himself an early hole with an ugly double bogey early in Friday’s second round. McIlroy carded a crooked five on the short third hole to ensure his chase of runaway clubhouse leader Robert MacIntyre would not be a straight road.
Instead McIlroy had to steady himself and then find the direction of travel all over again at Caves Valley Golf Club. He did so, plundering three birdies and a morale-boosting eagle from the ninth hole all the way into the weekend, a 66 leaving McIlroy on four-under overall in a share of 11th.
There is still something of a chasm between there and the man at the top of the leaderboard as Ryder Cup teammate MacIntyre continued his scorching start to the tournament following his opening 62 with a flawless 64, a picture-pretty scorecard with three birdies on the front and three more on the back to push him way out in front before the later wave teed off.
With an air of inevitability it was McIlroy’s playing partner and world No.1 Scottie Scheffler who would end up closest, his five-under 65 moving him to nine-under overall, five back of MacIntyre.
For McIlroy’s part, he was relieved to have turned things around from his opening even-par 70 but insisted that he is out of contention and needs to focus on smoothening out some rough edges ahead of next week’s finale to the PGA Tour season. That is something of a luxury this year now that scores don’t carry over from the BMW to East Lake where a $40m prize pot will be on the line.
“I think I’m just playing my own tournament at this point,” he said. “[I want to] shoot a good, play a good weekend. Again, no one is going to obviously replace Scottie at No. 1, but [I want to] try to sort of solidify that No. 2 spot and then turn my attention to the Tour Championship next week. I just want to try to play a good weekend and feel a little bit better about my game going into that.”
In a season where his driver has been the subject of so much focus and plenty of angst, McIlroy was frustrated with his play off the tee Friday. “I still want to try to hit a few more fairways. Still struggling to get the ball in play. But when I do get the ball in play, I give myself plenty of chances and make some birdies,” he added. “That’s a positive. I just need to try to get the ball in play a little bit more, and I did that for a little bit more on the back nine, and that was why, obviously, I scored better.”
The European veteran was pleased to see MacIntyre out in front with fellow 2023 stars Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland all among the chasing pack a month out from a mouth-watering Ryder Cup rematch at Bethpage Black. He also had a word for Englishman Harry Hall, in a tie for eighth as a rich vein of Stateside form continues.
“It’s good. It’s good to see Bob, Ludvig, Viktor, Tommy, even Harry Hall who’s maybe got a chance to play in the team. It bodes well for a few weeks’ time,” added McIlroy. ” I played with Harry in his first start as a pro at the Dunhill Links a few years ago. I know him a little bit. Really nice player, great rhythm to his golf swing, and he’s sort of done it a different way. He went over to UNLV and did it that way. But he’s become a very consistent player, so we’ll see what happens.”
Compatriot Shane Lowry sits three shots further back in a tie for 16th after he followed his opening 70 with a 69 on Friday which looked to be trending a lot better until he lost momentum after the turn.
The Offaly man bogeyed the third but then found three birdies from the fourth hole to the tenth before things cooled. A closing bogey hardly helped the mood either.
