Change of fortune
McIlroy implodes as Schauffele seizes control
CROMWELL — This had felt very much like Rory McIlroy’s week from the moment he arrived in Connecticut and started talking about the state of golf, and the Travelers Championship felt very much like his tournament as he made the turn in Friday’s second round at TPC River Highlands.
McIlroy was picking apart our state’s little course, sharing the lead after Thursday’s opening round and arriving at the back nine Friday atop the leaderboard, solo. When he lawn-darted his tee shot to within 3 feet of the cup for another birdie at the par 3 11th, his score to 13-under par, he was in early position for a memorable wire-to-wire victory.
Instead of walking further toward Travelers history, though, McIlroy fell on his face and sprayed his ball left and right. He made a quadruple-bogey 8 at the par 4 12th and later added a double-bogey 6 at the drivable par 4 15th, disastrous pitfalls for a player who now enters the weekend tied for seventh place, six shots behind Xander Schauffele.
“I should be closer to the lead,” McIlroy said. “Feel like I let a lot of guys into the golf tournament … But, you know, it’s still only two rounds. There are two rounds left and a lot of golf left.”
McIlroy was one shot ahead of Schauffele when his round started to go sideways, and Schauffele, at 14-under, is the player in position to challenge the best score in relation to par — Kenny Perry’s 22pushing under in 2009 — since the tournament moved from Wethersfield to Cromwell in 1984.
If McIlory winds up with the trophy Sunday evening, he will be the first PGA Tour player to win a tournament while making a quadruple bogey since Adam Scott at the Honda Classic in 2016.
The PGA Tour’s website describes the 390-yard 12th as follows: “With the Connecticut River on the left and tall grass on the right, an accurate tee shot is essential on this undulating par 4. Too long off the tee, leaves the player a downhill lie. The elevated green can be treacherous with
many severe breaks.”
McIlroy’s “snowman” on Friday started with a tee shot yanked wide left and out of bounds. His provisional tee shot went right, into the primary rough. His approach from there landed in a greenside bunker and his next shot went over the green and into the rough.
His sixth shot kept him in that rough. McIlroy then chipped and made a short put, moving from 13-under to 9-under for the tournament.
After consecutive pars, another tee shot went awry at the 271-yard 15th, way right, on a hill behind gathered fans, and he hit out of the tall brown grass, some of it trampled, back into the fairway. His third shot went long over the green, into the water, and he had to get up and down after a penalty drop just to salvage double-bogey. He had fallen to 7-under for the tournament at this point, off the viewable portion of the leaderboard in the blink of an eye.
“For whatever reason I haven’t been comfortable with my fairway woods the last couple weeks,” McIlroy said. “You know, I just hit three loose ones there, two on 12 and then the one on 15. That was really it. I played well the rest of the way. Obviously got off to that great start.”
McIlroy has been a rock star of late, not just for his golf. Ranked No. 2 in the world, he picked up his 21st PGA Tour victory at the Canadian Open earlier this month and tied for fifth last week at the U.S. Open.
In the meantime, he also became the most vocal player in support of the PGA Tour, speaking out against defecting players and the new rival tour, LIV Golf. McIlroy, the most famous player in the Travelers field, then shot up the leaderboard Thursday, posting an 8-under 62 that was matched later in the day by J.T. Poston.
Both of the round 1 leaders shot even-par 70 Friday.
Schauffele (14-under) has a five shot lead over five players tied for second place — Patrick Cantlay, 2021 champion Harris English, Nick Hardy, Cam Davis and Kevin Kisner.
Schauffele was playing one group ahead of McIlroy and was held up on 13, giving him time to come to
some vague understanding of what was taking place behind him.
“People were yelling some weird stuff, so you can never trust too many people out in the crowd this late in the afternoon, yelling funny things,” he said. “I was just trying to worry about — 13 is one of the harder holes out here to hit the fairway, and it’s not a great one to sit on, but it’s just something you’ve got to deal with in this tournament. I was more focused on trying to hit that fairway than anything else.”
McIlroy had another seven birdies Friday, his final one at 18, giving him 15 for the tournament. He had just one bogey and 14 birdies through 29 holes.
Hole No. 30, rated by TPC River Highlands as just the 12th most difficult hole on the course, derailed him. It was a scene more befitting Wednesday’s celebrity pro-am — a healthy reminder of how quickly momentum can be thwarted,
the leaderboard can change and this sport can make you shake your head and take deep breaths at a moment’s notice. That was McIlroy’s back-nine demeanor.
“It’s golf sometimes,” McIlroy said. “It sort of came out of the blue. I haven’t made a big number like that, or couple big numbers like that, in a long time.”
What happened? “You know, when you hit a tee shot like on 12, the second one is pretty difficult and you’re sort of guarding against the left one, and I missed it right,” McIlroy said. “It was just one of those. I put myself in a great position in the tournament and then just three bad swings have sort of cost me six shots. I’ve got all that work to sort of try to makeup over the weekend. At least I have the time to do it.”