From a position in Thursday’s opening round where it seemed as if the code handed to him represented nothing but a series of jumbled numbers, Rory McIlroy’s second round in The Players at Sawgrass was entirely different as he finally deciphered a way to unlock the Stadium Course: in producing a career-best 64 on the Pete Dye-design, to move to eight-under-par 136, the 25-year-old Northern Irishman moved menacingly into contention.
Jason Day, though, continued on where he’d left off from his first round leading 64 with three birdies on the opening eight holes of his second round to set the pace before a weatherfront, with the threat of lightning, closed in to force a suspension. The world number one led on 12-under-par, two clear of Sweden’s Jonas Blixt and Germany’s Alex Cejka produced successive 67s to share the clubhouse lead on 134.
And there was drama aplenty for Shane Lowry, who produced a birdie-bogey-eagle finish to his front nine. After birdeing the 16th, Lowry chunked his tee shot to the 17th into the lake but managed to get up and down for bogey from the drop zone before audaciously holing out with a gap wedge for an eagle two on the 18th. The Offalyman then birdied the Par 5 second to move to nine-under, three behind Day.
The secret for McIlroy, as it transpired, was simple: to hit fairways, and to hole putts. It proved a code-breaking formula and his upward trajectory of McIlroy added a rather ominous presence to the leaderboard even if he later confessed to being “frustrated” and “disappointed” with his lot.
“I feel like I should be tied for the lead,” he explained.
McIlroy wasted no time in making his move, rolling in an opening 25 footer for birdie on the 10th, his first of the day. There followed a masterclass, as he made it four birdies in a row by rolling in a four-footer on the 11th, a 15-footer on the 12th and a three-footer on the 13th. If that run put a pep in his step, there was more to come as he sank a six-footer on 15 for his fifth birdie and then rolled in a 55 footer from off the green for eagle on the Par 5 16th.
That Par 5 had proven costly to McIlroy in the first round, as he’d hit his approach through the green into the lake and ran up a bogey six. In effect, it owed him one. And that wonderful run on his front nine enabled him to match the day-old record of 29 strokes set by Shane Lowry on Thursday. “The back nine could not have played any easier,” admitted McIlroy.
If the fireworks of that stretch of nine holes didn’t continue into the homeward run, there was still much to admire from McIlroy as he grabbed further birdies at the second and seventh only to come unstuck on the Par 5 ninth, where he was probably too cute for his own good.
There, McIlroy opted to lay-up with his approach - when left with just over 270 yards to the front of the green - and was made pay for his decision when playing a poor third shot into the grassy bank of a greenside bunker. He ran up a bogey six, his only dropped shot of the round.
“I guess I have got it in my head that any time I have went for the green it hasn’t really worked out that well for me. With hindsight, that pin being on the left side, (hitting it) anywhere on the right and I would have had a chance to get up and down. But I thought if I get it within 100 yards and take my chance from there. I didn’t hit a great third shot. Maybe if I had it back, I would go for the green,” explained McIlroy, who had eyed a possible 62 if he’d managed to birdie his closing hole.
That closing bogey may have left a sour taste in McIlroy’s mouth, but his 64 - beating by two shots his previous best on the course - moved him into contention and into a position far removed from his early years in playing at Sawgrass when he missed the cut in his first three appearances in the tournament. “I hit a lot of quality shots, hopefully I’ll continue to see that over the weekend.”
McIlroy wasn’t the only one to take advantage of benign conditions and soft greens, as Colt Knost hit all 18 greens in regulation and shot a course record equalling 63 to leapfrog through the field to lie on 135 at the halfway stage.
Knost even had a chance to set a new course record, but three-putted the 18th for a bogey. “I was fine over the first putt. I was trying to two-putt it, which is probably the problem instead of trying to make it. I was a little nervous over the second one. I knew what it was for. But I didn’t hit a bad putt, I hit it on the left lip and it just stayed there and lipped out.”
Graeme McDowell fired a second round 70 for 142 to at least survive the midway cut but Pádraig Harrington’s 74 for 146 meant he missed back-to-back cuts after also failing to survive at the Wells Fargo last week and he heads to the DDF Irish Open at the K Club in search of his scoring game.
