RORY GETS IT GOING AGAIN
RORY McIlroy bounced back from the nightmare finish to his opening round on day two of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.
Just two days after tournament host Jack Nicklaus had lamented McIlroy’s occasional lapses in concentration, the Co Down man carded a triple bogey on the 18th to sign for a level-par 72.
“I don’t know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he (goes) par, par, par, double, eight,” Nicklaus said in his pre-event press conference.
It was not an eight on Thursday but a nevertheless destructive seven on the par-four 18th, where his drive finished in deep rough on a steep side slope.
McIlroy could only hack his ball almost sideways into more rough and he caught a flier with his third before taking four shots to get down from the back of the green.
“I felt good about everything I did yesterday,” McIlroy said after carding six birdies and two bogeys in a second round of 68.
“I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker. So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this golf tournament.
Bunker
“(If) that rolls down into the bunker, hopefully I’m able to hit it on the green and make a four and instead of standing here at four under I would be at seven under and feeling good.
“I felt like I did a lot of really good things yesterday and I did a lot of good things right, so I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”
At four under par McIlroy was three shots off the early clubhouse lead held by Hideki Matsuyama, the former Masters champion carding a superb bogey-free 65 to lead by one from Patrick Cantlay and David Lipsky.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Tom McKibbin is sharing second place in the Porsche European Open in Hamburg.
McKibbin is level with Scotland’s David Law and England’s Jordan Smith, one shot behind Max Kieffer, who added a 71 to his opening 69 for six-under par.
Law recorded the best round of the tournament, his 66 including an eagle on the par-five 18th.
Simon Forsstrom started the day with a share of the lead but slid into a tie for 21st after a 4-over 77.
Besides Kieffer’s lead, there was another standout moment for the local fans as Germany’s Hurly Long made an albatross on the par-5, 595-yard 11th, finding the hole with a 281-yard approach.