McIlroy takes low route out of rough

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was a shot known to high handicap golfers, a six-iron bounced along a paved cart path. Only the guy playing it was a four-time major champion, and he was doing it Friday in the second round of the PGA Championship.

On the 592-yard, par-five 10th, his first hole of the day, McIlroy’s second shot went right toward the gallery, ricocheted off the macadam cart path and rolled into rough of the 11th hole, 110 yards from the pin on10.

He chose not to try to hit over a line of trees, instead choosing the low route, down the cart path. The ball bounced out of a bunker and across the green into the fringe, from where McIlroy two-putted for a par

“I got a little unlucky when my second shot hit the cart path,” he said, “It [the third] was the only option I had. I said, ‘OK, I’ll bounce it up and see where it does.’ Luckily it got out of the bunker and on to the other side.”

McIlroy ended up with his second straight 1-over par 72 and is 10 shots off the lead of

It took 31 holes to make his first birdie of the tournament, sinking a putt for a two on the184-yard fourth, his 13th hole of the day. After following that with a bogey and double-bogey, Mickelson made two more birdies. He shot a twoover 74, after an opening round of 79, his worst single round in 25 appearances in the event.

Mickelson, 47, had played well at Quail Hollow when the Wells Fargo tournament was played here. “But it’s a different course than we’ve played in the past,” he said.

still trying to get his first major, had a one-under 70 and is at threeunder 139. Starting at 10, he had two birdies and one bogey and parred his last 10 holes, 18 through 9.

played in 350 events as a member of the PGA Tour. Now, age 49, and without an affiliation, he won the Club Pro Championship, qualified for the PGA Championship and depending on one’s viewpoint, after his one-under 70 for twoover 144 will be the first club pro to make the cut in two years.

in 2015 at Whistling Straits was the only club pro to make the cut the last six years.