Rory McIlroy wanted a spark.
He struggled on the entrance 9, making bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes, and immediately, he sat at 1-over for the event. His putter was not cooperating both, as he didn’t make a single birdie over his first 9 holes.
As such, McIlroy determined to be aggressive on the par-4 tenth, which measures 401 yards. He pulled out the massive stick, aimed over the nook of the dogleg, and knocked it on the inexperienced.
In doing so, McIlroy turned the primary participant to drive the tenth inexperienced at Bay Hill since 2003, the start of the ShotLink period.
“I believed if I acquired it in one of many two entrance traps, that will be an excellent depart to hit one thing up the inexperienced,” McIlroy mentioned of his tee shot.
“I wasn’t making an attempt to hit it on the inexperienced, however it was good to stroll up and see it on there.”
McIlroy then two-putted for birdie, thus getting again to even-par for the event.
Then, the Northern Irishman hooked his tee shot into the pond on the subsequent gap. Regardless of that, he nonetheless acquired up and down from 152 yards, knocking his third shot to seven toes within the course of.
“These holes, specifically, 10 and 11, type of acquired me going,” McIlroy mentioned.
The four-time main winner then birdied the par-5 twelfth and the par-4 thirteenth. McIlroy drained a 27-footer at 13 to get to 2-under general.
However he was not completed.
McIlroy made three straight birdies to shut out his spherical, finally shifting up the leaderboard by greater than 20 spots. His two birdies on 17 and 18 got here on putts from 29 toes and 19 toes, respectively.
He signed for a 4-under 68, one of many lowest rounds of the day—a day that has performed extraordinarily tough because of the warmth and excessive winds. He now sits at 5-under general.
Something can occur on the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, too, particularly since McIlroy has now entered rivalry.
“You bought to choose your spots and nonetheless be affected person,” McIlroy defined.
“I feel the wind will probably be out of a distinct path once more [Sunday], so the wind or the golf course will play fairly in a different way than it did right this moment. We’ll see what occurs.”
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
