BMW Championship: Rory McIlroy’s driver leads to disappointing round

Rory McIlroy couldn’t get issues going Friday on the BMW Championship.

He completed his spherical proper the place he began: at 5-under for the event. He carded an even-par 70 for his second spherical.

“Fairly mediocre,” McIlroy mentioned of his play on Friday. “Total, I hit it slightly higher off the tee. I had a few huge [misses] on 7 and 15. However I don’t really feel like I performed too completely different to how I performed yesterday. I simply bought a bit extra out of my spherical yesterday.”

The day earlier than, McIlroy shot a 5-under 65, regardless of hitting simply three fairways. His miraculous ‘hit and hope’ birdie on the par-4 seventeenth was the spotlight of the day, which put him in a share of the lead after the primary spherical.

Quick ahead a day, and McIlroy now sits 5 again of Max Homa, who blistered Olympia Fields en path to capturing the course document.

Picture by Michael Reaves/Getty Photos

On the par-4 seventh, one of many holes McIlroy alluded to, he pushed his tee-shot miles proper of the golf green. He was fortunate to flee with a par, due to an eight-foot putt he holed.

Later, on the par-5 fifteenth, McIlroy rifled his tee ball deep into the woods proper of the golf green, forcing a penalty drop. That led to his first—and to this point solely—bogey of the championship.

But, 34-year-old has not been penalized an excessive amount of for his inaccuracies due to the comfortable circumstances at Olympia Fields.

The Chicago-area course has acquired over two inches of rain this week, and the gamers have taken full benefit.

“I definitely haven’t performed a golf course the place the greens have been this comfortable in fairly some time,” McIlroy mentioned.

“However there are nonetheless some greens that you just’d nearly somewhat—particularly to a few of these again pins—you’d somewhat be hitting out of the tough than out of the golf green as a result of it gained’t spin again on you. Hopefully, it corporations up over the weekend, and if it does, we’ll all need to hit a couple of extra fairways.”

Picture by Michael Reaves/Getty Photos

On the few events McIlroy discovered the brief grass off the tee, he had the inexperienced mild to assault the flag stick.

As an example, on the tenth gap, McIlroy hammered his tee shot 334 yards over the bunker on the left nook of the golf green. It was arguably one of the best drive he hit all week.

“That [second] shot into 10, that was 105 [yards], so I’ve like a 105-yard shot with my sand wedge, which is the bottom shot that I’ve,” McIlroy defined. “So if I went to a different wedge, say my 50-degree wedge, I don’t observe hitting my 50 [degree] 105 [yards], so I don’t actually know what swing to placed on it. That’s as simple as I can hit a sand wedge, and I attempted to take spin-off, and it nonetheless spun.”

McIlroy’s second shot at 10 landed as soon as and spun off the entrance of the inexperienced, thus eliminating any likelihood of constructing a birdie.

That occurred a couple of occasions Friday.

However he would somewhat have that occur than discover the penalty space off the tee.

Nonetheless, the four-time main winner should discover extra fairways if he needs to trace down Homa. As a result of proper now, McIlroy ranks lifeless final in driving accuracy on the BMW Championship, which doesn’t occur usually.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By means of. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko for extra golf protection. You’ll want to take a look at @_PlayingThrough too.