McIlroy closes in on defensive Kuchar
Tournament host Woods lags way behind the leaders
>> LOS ANGELES: Rory McIlroy, making his first start as world No.1 since 2015, pulled within two strokes of 36-hole leader Matt Kuchar on Friday as Tiger Woods’s hopes of a landmark Genesis Invitational win dwindled.
Northern Ireland star McIlroy fired six birdies in a four-underpar 67 at Riviera Country Club, to share second place on sevenunder 135 with Americans Harold Varner and Wyndham Clark, who both signed for 68s.
Kuchar, who started the day with a three-shot lead, posted a two-under 69 that put him at nine-under 133.
Kuchar said his lack of accuracy had him on the defensive all day. “I wasn’t driving it nearly as accurate as I did the first day,” said Kuchar.
“Two-under was an awfully good score for the way I drove it today. I better find more control.”
Woods was nine shots off Kuchar’s lead, tied for 45th, after a two-over 73 that included a double-bogey and three bogeys.
“I made some bad mistakes out there,” said Woods, who opened with a birdie at the 10th but soon found himself in trouble. “I had a wedge in my hand at 15 and made double there, sand wedge on three and made bogey there.
“Three runaway shots with wedges, something I rarely ever do,” added Woods, who was in the fairway with 144 yards to the hole at 15 but found a greenside bunker on the way to a double-bogey.
He clawed back two shots with birdies at the 17th and first, but was in another greenside bunker at the third and couldn’t get his seven-footer to save par to drop.
Two more bogeys in the next three holes further dimmed his chances of breaking Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour victories this week.
Woods matched the record with a win at the Zozo Championship in Japan in October, and finished tied for ninth in his only other start since at Torrey Pines.
The record would be extra sweet this week at Riviera — the course where Woods made his tour debut as a teenager, but where he has come up empty in 12 prior starts.
McIlroy, playing Riviera for just the fourth time, birdied all three par-fives and while he hit just four of 14 fairways he avoided major trouble.
“Most of the day I did the things that I needed to do,” he said. “I missed a few fairways coming in and it makes it very difficult to control your spin and get any spin onto the ball coming into these greens.
“But I managed it well, played the angles, got a couple of really nice up-and-downs towards the end — a nice two-putt on 18.”