Rory left sickened by his putting but recovers to feel better by the end
AN E.coli outbreak discovered in the water system at Erin Hills forced worried USGA bosses to hastily shut down the public drinking fountains.
Thankfully there’s no reports of fans falling ill but inside the ropes Rory McIlroy was sickened as another part of his game went off colour to leave his US Open hopes beyond saving.
On Thursday it was his erratic driving that had cost him so dearly as he chopped and hacked his way to an opening 78 that he defiantly insisted he could bounce back from in his second round.
But as one problem was cured – his driving performance was much improved yesterday, finding 11 of 14 fairways – another flared up like a bad bout of heartburn to undermine any lingering hopes of making the cut.
Three-putting the 18th and fourputting the first hole as he turned at the halfway stage of his round was the defining point of a frustrating morning when the realisation became stark.
He would be – to paraphrase his now infamous pre-tournament comments “packing up and going home” – a fact hammered home on the next hole when a thinned chip through the back of the green had him slamming his club on the deck in frustration.
It was over. But to the Northern Irishman’s credit he dug deep to produce four birdies out of his last six holes to drag his scorecard back into red numbers for the day.
A one-under 71 was never going to be enough to keep him here for the weekend. But McIlroy said: “I showed up for the last six holes so it was okay. I definitely hit it better off the tee and gave myself a lot more looks at birdies.
“But at the end of the day it’s about competitive rounds. I’ve been very light on competitive rounds this year and it’s just a matter of getting into a good round of golf now.
“I saw some positives there on the back nine and hopefully I can take them to the Travelers next week. I’m optimistic with some of where my game is.
“Hopefully I’ve got a lot of the bad stuff out my system.
“I’m playing next week in Connecticut, I’ve got a nice run leading up to The Open. I’ve got a busy summer so I’m excited to play a lot of golf.
“I feel like that’s going to help me to get back into contention and hopefully try to win some of these things.
“I was really, really good in practice and I just wasn’t able to translate that on to the golf course.
“Everything was in good shape but you never really know until you put a card in your hand and you’re under the gun little bit.
“And some of the weaknesses and flaws in my game at the minute showed up over the last couple of days.
“It’s good to see those and see what needs to be worked on.
“The golf course is great. I’m a big fan. It’s a big course, with long rough but it lets you play.
“It lets you be aggressive, you can get on runs where you can make birdies. It’s going to produce a really good winner at the end of the week.”
Misery loves company and McIlroy’s fellow big-name playing partner Jason Day didn’t have his problems to seek either as he bombed out on 10 over.
Like McIlroy the world No.3 had serious catching up to do after shooting 79 on the opening day and he admitted his game just wasn’t there as he toiled again in yesterday’s round of 75.
But the affable Aussie could still manage a joke afterwards. Day said: “Rory kind of showed up the last six holes so knowing I was kind of out of it I was trying to stay out of his way.
“And unfortunately with where I was hitting it, I wasn’t in the way!
“It’s frustrating because I felt like this had been the best preparation going into a Major in my career.
“In terms of knowing what I needed to do to prep for a tournament like this, I felt like I was right there. But unfortunately I was in the hay too much over the last couple of days.
“Actually I looked at the stats yesterday and I hit 12 greens but made two triples among that.
“With my short game, I made zero of six up-and-downs.
“It’s pretty frustrating when I got here Friday, put a lot of work in, made sure that I could actually play and visualise the golf course – and I felt the most calm I have in a Major in a long time.
“But unfortunately this didn’t pan out. The execution was not there.
“I usually love places like this. I enjoyed the walk. The walk was great! The golf course is actually really beautiful but unfortunately I just didn’t execute.”