ROAR FOR RORY
♦ Though his rally to make cut falls short, the Northern Irish star has the fans behind him.
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Everyone in the massive grandstand rose to cheer and celebrate a bold performance by Rory Mcilroy, who longed for such support and affection on his walk toward his final hole at Royal Portrush in the British Open.
Except this was Friday.
And now Mcilroy can only watch on the weekend as one of his best friends, Shane Lowry of Ireland, goes after the claret jug. Lowry birdied four of his opening five holes on his way to a 4-under 67 and shared the 36-hole lead with J.B. Holmes, who had a 68.
Lee Westwood and Tommy Fleetwood were one shot behind. Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth were three back. That can wait.
This day was all about Mcilroy, who kept the sellout crowd on edge as he tried to make the cut after opening with a 79. The roars had the intensity
of a final round as Mcilroy ran off five birdies in seven holes to brighten a gloomy sky over the North Atlantic. Needing one last birdie, his approach took a wrong turn along the humps left of the 18th green.
He made par for a 65.
“It’s a moment I envisaged for the last few years,” Mcilroy said. “It just happened two days early.”
He was disappointed. He was proud of his play. Mostly, though, he said he was “full of gratitude toward every single one of the people that followed me to the very end and was willing me on.”
“As much as I came here at the start of the week saying I wanted to do it for me, by the end of the round there today I was doing it just as much for them,” he said.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson won’t be around, either. It was the first time in 77 majors they have played as professionals that both
missed the cut in the same major. Darren Clarke, who honed his game on the Dunluce Links as a junior and now calls Portrush home, missed the cut in a most cruel fashion with a triple bogey on his final hole.
And now the first British Open in Northern Ireland since 1951 moves on without them, still with the promise of a great show.
Lowry was so nervous he was shaking on the tee when the tournament began Thursday, swept up in the emotion of an Open on the Emerald Isle, and on a course he knows. He gave fans plenty to cheer when he opened his second round with three straight birdies, added a birdie
on the fifth and holed a 40foot birdie putt on No. 10 to reach 10 under, making him the only player this week to reach double figures under par. The cheers were as loud as he has heard.
“Just incredible,” Lowry said. “You can’t but smile, but can’t but laugh how it is. There’s no point trying to shy away from it. It’s an incredible feeling getting applauded on every green, every tee box. I’m out there giving my best, trying to do my best for everyone.”
He three-putted the 14th, saved par on the next three holes with his deft touch around the greens, and closed with a bogey to fall back into a tie with Holmes, who played
earlier in the day and was the first to post at 8-under 134.
Holmes won at Riviera earlier this year, and then failed to make the cut in eight of his next 12 tournaments as he battled a two-way miss off the tee and felt so bad that he never thought he’d recover. But he did enough in Detroit three weeks ago to regain some confidence, and he has been in a groove at Portrush.
“You can have that great round and that day where everything goes right. But it’s nice to get two rounds in a row,” Holmes said. “It shows a little consistency. And two days in a row I’ve hit the ball really well and putted well.”