McIlroy facing an uphill fight to reach Tour Championship

RORY McILROY may be struggling to defend his FedEx Cup trophy but he showed yesterday that at least he will go down fighting. The former world No 1 has left himself needing a miracle weekend if he is to achieve the top-four finish in the BMW Championship he must make to qualify for next week’s Tour Championship when the $10million prize will be decided. His second-day 69 left him two under par for the tournament but that was way off the pace set by early clubhouse leader Patrick Cantlay, on ten under. On what should be a relatively simple 217-yard par three, McIlroy put his tee shot into the rough, then hacked it straight into a green-side bunker before missing a putt from seven feet to end up with a double-bogey five. McIlroy’s response was to birdie the next two holes, and then again at the 12th with a chip shot from 135 yards that was an inch from the hole. And even when he spoiled that with a wayward drive at the 13th which forced him to chip out square, he came back with two more birdies. It ended as a mixture of the bad and the brilliant which has been typical of his struggles since returning from back problems at the US Open.