A proud World No. 2 Rory McIlroy brilliantly reignited his quest for a maiden Augusta National title with a superb bogey-free six-under par 66 on day two of the Masters.
After posting two late opening round double-bogeys in a level par 72, McIlroy superly regrouped grabbing a 13th hole eagle ‘3’ and four birdies to be in the clubhouse at six-under-par and just two adrift of Justin Rose, who could add only a 71 and move to eight-under.
McIlroy’s second round is his lowest loop around Augusta National since a final round 64 on route to second place in the 2022 Masters.
And after his enormous disappointment yesterday in letting slip being four-under through 14 holes, McIlroy could not have been more pleased with a score that has him right back into contention.
Rors @McIlroyRory speaks of his pride in reigniting his quest to capture 2025 @TheMasters
“Overall I am just proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night”
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“I think overall I am just proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night,” he said.
“I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf yesterday, I wasn’t going to let two bad holes sort of dictate the narrative for the rest of the week.
“Once I left the property last night, I just sort of tried to leave what had happened here. I rushed out of here to get home to see Poppy before she went to bed.
“I feel like I just did a good job of resetting. I don’t think I proved anything.I just backed up the belief that I’m as resilient as anyone else out here.”
McIlroy was at his very best in the breezy early conditions on a course softened by overnight rain and explained that he couldn’t allow his poor finish to his first round to spoil the feeling of 16 great holes.
“I think I just had to remind myself that I was playing well and I couldn’t let two bad holes dictate the narrative of the 16 good ones,” McIlroy said on a morning where Shane Lowry shot 68 to lie just three shots behind Rose on five-under.
“I had to remind myself that I was playing well. I hit a lot of good shots. And then I also had to remind myself this morning not to try to push too hard too early.”
In saying this McIlroy revealed he had spoken to Dr Bob Rotella about staying patient early on and turned in one-under par before flipping the switch with a homeward nine of five-under 31, where the highlight was a spectacular eagle three at the 13th.
“I’m the king of shooting 72 in the first round of the golf tournament, so I feel like I’ve learned from my mistakes, and sometimes I’ve pushed too hard too early in that front nine on Friday and shot myself out of the tournament,” McIlroy said.
“I got off to a really steady start, had pars and one birdie through the front nine, and then everything sort of clicked into gear there at the start of the back nine.”
McIlroy admitted however he rode his luck with his 4-iron from 189 yards just clearing Rae’s Creek before he made a seven-foot eagle putt on No.13.
“When the ball was in the air, I was like: ‘You idiot, what did you do?’ I rode my luck a little bit on 13 and 14 and 15 and thankfully got away with it a little bit.
“I think those are the sorts of things that you need to happen in major championships.I feel like it got a little unfortunate yesterday in some parts, and I got a little fortunate today”.
McIlroy looked up at the leaderboard when he came into the press room but said: “I was just looking for my name. I was not really worried about the others!”
