Rory McIlroy suffered a bogey at the 18th hole of his second round at The Players Championship and it brought an end to his run at the course record. The Northern Irishman carded eight-under-par 64 to come up a stroke shy of the low round, but still rose 71 places up the leaderboard into a share of 12th on Friday.
‘Look, you know that a few guys have shot 63 here, it would have been nice to shoot 62. And I knew that playing the last that — so that was really the dilemma, what’s the best way, best chance for me to make birdie here?’ He said.
World number one Jason Day was roaring ahead on 14-under-par for the tournament when play was suspended due to darkness. He was forced into the clubhouse on five-under-par for the round with four holes still to play.
McIlroy started on the 10th and garnered headlines with his outward nine of 29. He reeled off four birdies in a row from the 10th to the 13th, added another at the 15th, and then eagled the 16th to go seven-under through seven.
His scoring slowed over the second loop, but he added further birdies at the second and seventh to reach nine-under-par through 16 holes, meaning two pars to finish and he would equal the course record.
It was not to be. McIlroy dropped a shot at the last before signing for 64.
‘I was thinking about it, I wanted to make birdie and shoot 62. There’s no doubt about that,’ said the world number three.
‘This course plays so differently from morning to afternoon. In the first two days you really need to take advantage of that morning tee time. I’m a little disappointed with how I finished, but 64 is a great score and hopefully I’m not too far behind going into the weekend,’ he added.
The course was there or the taking on Friday and Louis Oosthuizen shot 67 to rise 50 spots up the leaderboard and into a share of 33rd on five-under-par for the tournament.
Retief Goosen shot 68 and totalled six-under-par, which put the two-time US Open champ in a share of 22nd going into the weekend.
