\u201cI think I\u2019m in a great spot heading into the weekend,\u201d said Rory McIlroy after a five-under 67 that left him tied for sixth at the halfway mark of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.<\/p>\n
The world number two struggled to find fairways on day one but managed to turn in a three-under 69 that left him just outside the top 10. If he was going to be a serious contender over the remaining 54 holes, however, he was going to have to be playing from the short grass much more frequently and that\u2019s exactly what he did in round two.<\/p>\n
Amidst tricky winds in the afternoon at Wentworth\u2019s West Course, McIlroy found eight of 14 fairways \u2013 only seven players found more \u2013 and carded seven birdies. Three of those came in his first five holes, starting with a chip-in on the par-3 second, a two-putt birdie from long range on the par-5 fourth, and a dart to the par-3 fifth. His only poor tee shot of the front nine came on eight, where he missed the fairway with an iron and had to take his medicine.<\/p>\n
He had five makeable birdie putts on the first five holes on the back side, but could only convert two of them and when he pulled his wedge approach to the 16th and made bogey, you feared that the wrong outcomes on the risk\/reward back-to-back par-5s remaining could see him shoot his way out of contention.<\/p>\n
But two crushed 3 woods, two solid approach shots, and two good lag putts resulted in two closing birdies and he\u2019s just four back going into the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, pretty good,\u201d was his response when asked his feelings about the round. \u201cI think I\u2019m in a great spot heading into the weekend. Playing a bit better today than I did yesterday. I hit a lot more fairways. Felt like I drove the ball better. Gave myself a few more chances. Didn\u2019t feel like I was scrambling my way around most of the day today. Solid round and I\u2019m in a good spot heading into the last two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy\u2019s recent technical work on his swing has garnered a lot of attention, but he feels that the tricky winds that sweep through the tree-lined corridiors at Wentworth encourages him to think more about what shape and ball-flight he\u2019s trying to produce rather than how he\u2019s swinging the club specifically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with the conditions and it being blustery, it forces you not to think of a swing and to think of trajectory and sort of what you\u2019re trying to do with the ball,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you know, I\u2019ve been doing this now for a few weeks, and I feel like I\u2019ve got a good in-play feeling for what I\u2019m trying to do or a good thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, you know, since I\u2019ve been trying to make a couple of changes, I\u2019ve played pretty good. A couple of top 5s to finish the PGA TOUR season, and then didn\u2019t \u2014 I actually felt like I hit the ball pretty well at The Irish Open last week. I just didn\u2019t putt particularly well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve seen some encouraging signs again this week, and at least I know I\u2019m on the right path and heading in the right direction. I keep saying it\u2019s going to take probably \u2014 it\u2019s taken me five or six months to get into this habit. It will probably take me the same amount of time to get out of it but I\u2019m committed to doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy lies second on the Race to Dubai rankings, trailing Patrick Reed, but the American was forced to withdraw midway through his second round after suffering a wrist injury following a horror start that saw him cover his nine holes in +9.<\/p>\n
McIlroy and Reed have had their issues down through the years, but the reigning Masters champion admitted that he respects how Reed turned his back on LIV Golf at the start of the year and has played a heavy schedule on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, look, I\u2019m motivated regardless of who it is,\u201d he replied when asked if pursuing Reed gave him extra motivation in his quest for a record-tying eight Harry Vardon Trophy as the leading player on the European circuit. \u201cObviously Patrick and I have had quite the battles over years, whether it be Ryder Cup, final round in a major. Dubai Desert Classic a few years ago. He\u2019s a great competitor and he\u2019s played great all year. I respect him for how he\u2019s went about it, and coming through here, he\u2019s put his head down and done the work, and it\u2019s actually been really good to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately he\u2019s pulled out this week, which gives me an opportunity to try to claw back some ground that I lost last week in Ireland. This weekend is a big weekend for me to pick up a few points and make the race even tighter going into these last few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy is four shots behind Ryan Gerard, who finished eagle-birdie to move to -12 with a two-shot advantage over Adam Scott and Italy\u2019s Filippo Celli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think I\u2019m in a great spot heading into the weekend,\u201d said Rory McIlroy after a five-under 67…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1017,332,17],"class_list":["post-12885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-bmw-pga-championship","tag-dp-world-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117294036681834614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}