St. Louis, Missouri …
“Uneventful” is how Rory McIlroy summed-up his efforts at the completion of the rain-interrupted second round at the PGA Championship in St. Louis.
The word also pretty much has summed-up to date McIlroy’s week in the year’s final Major with the two-time PGA winner hardly getting out of first gear on the Bellerive course.
McIlroy was struggling right the cut-off mark of level par through 11 holes on Friday when play was halted at 3.35pm local time and then some two hours later being suspended for the day.
He resumed from the middle of the fairway at the par-5 12th only to find a greenside bunker ahead of the first of three closing birdies.
McIlroy had produced 16 straight pars, and this including ending round one with seven pars in succession, before finally finding some joy in landing his bunker shot on eight to just two-feet for birdie.
Tiger, Justin and Rory McIlroy on day three of the PGA Championship
His other two birdies, at the par-4 14th and par-5 penultimate hole came about in chipping-in from rough right of the green on 14 and two-putting the 17th.
Then at last, McIlroy had playing partner Tiger Woods looking very closely at McIlroy’s par putt from some five-feet and with Woods’ putt on the same line but two-feet shorter.
Each player pared the hole and with McIlroy signing for a 67 for an official second round share of 25th place at three-under and two shots more than Woods.
Defending PGA champion, Justin Thomas and the third member of the group, produced an eventual 65 to be better placed sharing ninth place at six-under.
McIlroy was then asked an assessment of his round.
“I mean it was sort of uneventful, apart from I had the chip-in on 14 after not a great iron shot,” he said.
“But I birdied the two par-5s, which you should do here, and didn’t make any other mistakes. I sort of hung in there. I only hit one green in the last six holes and played them in 2-under.
“So, I did what I needed to do. I felt like the cut was going to be 1-under par, it ended up being even.
“It was nice to shoot 3-under this morning and get in at least a little closer and in saying that I need to go out there this afternoon and post a low one and try to get myself in the tournament.”
As for the Bellerive course that’s now had two downpours in the five days McIlroy remarked: “Even without the rain yesterday it was still so soft, so just be aggressive when you can.
“The ball wasn’t going quite as far this morning as it was yesterday afternoon, so you have to take that into account, but I think as the day goes on the balls start to go its number. It was very heavy, the air’s very heavy out there.
“So just distance control and get a little more control on my short and mid irons and I’ll be okay.
“If I can get my short and mid irons in a good place and just start seeing some putts drop, I feel like there’s a really low one out there.”
