Rory McIlroy at British Open 2016: Friday Leaderboard Score and Twitter Reaction
Rory McIlroy struggled with the tough weather conditions at Royal Troon Golf Club on Friday, as he carded an even-par round of 71 to all but play himself out of contention for the 2016 British Open title. After two days, he is at two under par.
The Northern Irishman was one of the late starters and tumbled down the leaderboard after a promising start to his round. A run of four bogeys through five holes ruined all of his hard work on the front nine, and going into the third round, current leader Phil Mickelson sits eight shots ahead of the 2014 champion.
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Here's a look at McIlroy's scorecard from Friday:
| Par | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 36 |
| Round 2 Score | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 34 |
| Overall | -2 | -3 | -3 | -3 | -3 | -4 | -5 | -5 | -4 | |
| Par | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 35 |
| Round 2 Score | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 37 |
| Overall | -3 | -3 | -2 | -1 | -1 | -1 | -2 | -2 | -2 |
Here's the current leaderboard:
Recap
McIlroy finished the front nine with an excellent score of four-under on Thursday before crashing back down to Earth on the back nine, and on Friday, he once again found a rhythm early.
The 27-year-old's power held up well in the windy and even rainy conditions, and after a routine par on the first hole, he started his march up the leaderboard by making birdie on the second.
A key positional shot that covered a huge amount of ground made the difference, per the European Tour's official Twitter account:
McIlroy played calm and collected, and his swing seemed loose through the first couple of holes. He made a mistake by hitting a fade into the crowd on the par-five fourth hole, but he recovered nicely to make par.
While some of the favourites struggled with the conditions, McIlroy seemed to relish the tough winds, finding the fairway on his first six tries and recording back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh to move to three-under on the day and into the top five.
The Postage Stamp hole gave him some trouble, but unlike Jordan Spieth, who came away with a double bogey at the eighth, McIlroy saved par with a fantastic bunker shot. Balls.ie shared a photo of the difficult situation he faced:
The Vancouver Sun's Cam Cole noted how the top players make things seem so easy:
He couldn't finish his front nine on a high note, however, missing a short put for par to finish with a bogey and a score of two-under, along with a six-shot gap to Mickelson. Bridging that gap seemed difficult, as the wind intensified over the course of the day.
A bogey on the par-four 10th was followed by a par and another bogey, and Golf Monthly had a simple explanation:
The Golf Channel provided photographic evidence of the harsh playing conditions:
Just like on Thursday, McIlroy couldn't get it together on the back nine. Another bogey on the par-four 13th made it three out of his first four on the back nine and pushed his score for the day to one-over. While he didn't have to worry about making the cut, McIlroy's chances of winning the title grew slimmer with seemingly every shot he played.
His slide finally ended on the par-three 14th, where he put himself in a great position with a solid approach shot. With his confidence seemingly restored, McIlroy made par on the next hole before making his first birdie of the back nine with a stunning long-range putt.
That moved him into a tie for 15th place, and per ESPN.com's Jason Sobel, the leaderboard highlighted just how much harder it was for the late starters on Friday:
He finished his day with back-to-back pars.
Despite his rough day in the tricky conditions, McIlroy walked off the course in good spirits. Per Sobel, he shared an anecdote of how he started the par-four 13th:
"I hit a drive that I thought was 20 yards left of the fairway and I got up there and it was in the middle of the fairway, just because it went about 230 [yards]. I made a 5 and it was a good par.
I feel like I've played very well; I kept it together in the conditions quite well. It's the Open Championship. Some draws go your way and some draws don't. The last Open I played, I got the good end of the draw and good things happened that week. Then this year it's not so much. But I'm not going to let being on the wrong side ruin my mood or ruin my week.
"
McIlroy's recovery on the back nine bodes well for the rest of The Open, although he has a mountain to climb to even finish in the top three, let alone grab the title.
The playing field should level out after the cut, however, and the former Open winner will have the chance to make up ground on Saturday.
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