Jupiter, Florida this is not - Rory McIlroy one shot off the lead

Operation Get In Before The Weather Gives Out. Rory McIlroy landed at the K Club early in the morning sitting a shot off Danny Willett’s lead and the scuttlebutt all around Kildare said that if he was going to do some scoring, he best do it before they lift the cloche off luncheon. It looks like being a grotty enough weekend overhead, beginning this afternoon, and McIlroy cracked afterwards that he just about remembered to pack his wet gear when he left the States. Jupiter, Florida this is not.

He bumped and bunted his way around the K Club here, just about winning the argument with himself by the end. A 25-footer for birdie on the last turned a mediocre day into one where he just about held serve. It meant he got to the house with a 70 against his name, leaving him a shot back of Willett and Marc Warren. Not a bad outcome, given that he rarely had his best stuff on show.

This never really felt like a 70 for McIlroy. It was more like a 72 or 73 dressed up in fancy clothes. Time and again, his short game was erratic to the point where it looked like he was losing concentration. He had three bogeys on his card by the end, each of them the result of a poor chip from just off the edge of the green. He sometimes looked to be phoning his round in - and over a not altogether perfect line either.

And yet, almost despite himself, he hauled five birdies out of his round. A couple of them were long putts that dropped from unlikely ranges, a couple more came at par fives where just keeping it between the ditches offered up chances to most of the field. It was a round that never sparkled and yet, when it was over, it retained a certain sheen. Can’t ask for a lot more than that.

“It changed my mood a little bit,” he said of the birdie on the last. “I was getting quite frustrated there. Especially the end of the round, I felt I was giving myself chances and wasn’t converting and any tie I did make a mistake, I wasn’t saving par.

“To hole that birdie putt on the last, it was nice. It gives me a little bit of momentum going into the weekend - and I’ll need it. I’m one shot behind at the minute and just excited to be up near the top of the leaderboard. Hopefully I can put another good couple of rounds in over the next two days.”

Understandably enough, he was followed around by the biggest gallery of the day. Starting on the 10th, McIlroy had two birdies on the front nine and followed them up with another after the turn.

That third one was a reward for good play in the face of bad luck - a towering approach checking beside the pin but spinning back to topple over a ridge and dribble 20 away feet from the pin. It was a shot that deserved better so when his long, snaking putt dropped - even though he was probably really only trying to lag it close - it felt like justice of a sort.

By that stage, he had moved to seven-under-par and stood level with Willett but with the Masters champion mopping up birdies at the par fives, a gap soon started to open up. The ropiest part of McIlroy’s round came midway through the back nine. Having already duffed a chip on his eighth hole, he left a couple more short on his 12th and 14th and by the time he walked off the 15th at six-under, Willett was three clear and threatening to put open water between them.

But the tournament host hung in and closed the gap to one by the end. Then he scuttled off for his lunch, ducking out of the blackening clouds as he went.

“The guys on this side of the draw got very lucky with the weather,” he conceded before he went. “We didn’t really have to play in any rain whatsoever and it looks like the guys that were out yesterday morning and have to go out again this afternoon will be getting rain both days. I got lucky with the draw so I took advantage of that.”

He'll head for the RDS tonight to take in the Pro-12 semi-final between Ulster and Leinster, taking advantage of the first late Saturday tee-time he's had at an Irish Open in his career. It'll mean he'll be on-course during the FA Cup final - the prospect of which, when we asked him, he didn't seem overly perturbed about.

"I won't say what I think about that," he said with a smile that indicted he wouldn't be heartbroken if Louis Van Gaal turned out to be managing his last game for McIlroy's beloved Manchester United. "I mean, a certain result might not be the worst thing in the world."

Straffan isn’t the only place in the world where the skies could be darkening.