An hour overnight on the practice range got Rory McIlroy sorted out bouncing back with a 67 on the second day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.
McIlroy could hardly hit the side of a barn door on day one, including sending his very first tee shot onto the range when returned before emerging on day two, hitting nine of 14 fairways and five more than a day earlier at Bay Hill.
The current World No. 2 moved from three over par to two under but faces an Everest-like task over the weekend if he’s to reel-in Aussie Jason Day who added a 65 to his 66 and move five shots clear of the field mid-way through day two of the $US 6.2m event.
Rory McIlroy finds himself the centre of media attention after his round of 67.
“Thursday was the worst I have driven it in a long, long time and I just couldn’t hit a fairway, and especially the shock of my first tee shot going ‘OB’,” said McIlroy
“I had not seen a tee shot go left like that for as long as I can remember so it was a real shock to me..
“Fortunately, an hour on the range last night using ‘Trackman’ I managed to find a couple of things I was doing wrong, so I came out today and managed to hit it a lot better today and it showed in my score.
“What I had figured out my face angle was a little left at impact as I had been trying to move the ball up a little bit in my stance but then even if you are swinging it well, if the face is closed and hitting it at that speed there is no way it is going to come back.
“And it could have been a lot lower as I only birdied one of the four par fives but then also bogeyed my 16th coming in there, so it could have easily been a 63 or a 64.
“But then the main objective is just to be here for the weekend and try and go lower over the weekend.”
There’s also good news with regards to McIlroy’s putting, and especially after his last event in Miami when the biggest issue in his game was the shortest club in his bag.
In fact, McIlroy had 28 putts on day one and just 25 in the second round.
And with just two rounds and next week’s defence of his WGC – Dell Match-Play title McIlroy remains quietly confident of peaking for the April 7th start to the Masters.
He said: “The good thing if you look at my career, and I don’t know if there is any exact science behind it, but you are always want to be your best for the best tournaments.
“On the other side of the coin, you also want to play consistently well week-in and week-out so I feel in my career I have been able to peak at the right times in previous years and that’s how I am feeling heading to Augusta.”
“My bad scores are not as near bad as they used to be and as long as you shoot a few good ones you should be okay, so I’m fine about my game with the Masters approaching.”
