Golf:Despite his tender years, nobody needs to tell Rory McIlroy about the fickle nature of professional golf. Just a week after making his breakout win on the PGA Tour, the 21-year-old was cut back down to size at Sawgrass.
After yesterday’s round of 73 at The Players Championship, McIlroy started this morning knowing a round in the 60s was needed not just to fight his way back into the tournament but to simply ensure his presence over the weekend.
On the day, McIlroy wasn’t able to deliver. A bogey at the first didn’t help his cause but three straight birdies from the fifth hinted at a reversal of fortunes. It failed to materialise. A double bogey at the 10th dropped him back to one over and he limped his way home to finish on that number.
With the cut scheduled to fall at one under, the youngster was all but assured to miss his third cut in four events. Such statistics could suggest a game in crisis. McIlroy, of course, has the Quail Hollow title secured safely in his display cabinet to banish any such demons
Not so Padraig Harrington, who is now facing his second weekend off in three after finishing on two over. The Dubliner flirted perilously close to the line over the first two days and could not get it going on a course he has performed well at in the past.
McIlroy missed the cut on his debut last year and said: “You can’t see fairways when you are on the tee and I find it hard to line up.”
The event is held on the same course each year and when reminded he had better get used to it now he is in the world’s top 10 he replied: “If it wasn’t a $9.5 million dollar event I might not have to.”
Harrington’s ball on the sixth was so far up in the palm tree that it could not be identified and so he had to return to the bunker from where he had played the shot.
That said, the Dubliner commented: “A three-putt on the 11th (for a par) cost me dearly. Things didn’t really go my way, not that I played fantastic.”
Graeme McDowell was faring considerably better that his two fellow Irishmen after a sparkling round of 65 moved him to seven under but that was still five behind the clubhouse leader Lee Westwood who took another step towards his first victory in America for over 12 years.
Westwood soared into the halfway lead as his decision to put golf’s richest event back on his schedule paid handsome dividends as he led by one from Westwood Francesco Molinari and Japan’s Ryuji Imada.
Europe’s number one, who has been part of the field at Sawgrass only three times in the last seven years, added a 65 to his opening 67 for a halfway total of 132 which was only two outside Greg Norman’s tournament record.
With Phil Mickelson, the man who pushed him into second place at The Masters, and world number one Tiger Woods deep in the pack Westwood now looks a good bet for his first win in America since 1998.
Third, third and second in the last three majors, Westwood said: “I keep coming back. Don’t keep knocking me — I’m not going to go away. I’m just going to keep trying until one of them goes my way.”
He does not rate The Players the “unofficial fifth major” that it is not often called, but did say: “A victory here would be incredibly important. You get that sort of tingle when it’s getting close.”
Molinari, who chose the event ahead of his home Italian Open, matched Westwood’s 65, while Imada shot 66.
Woods, who missed the cut by eight shots last week, hit ugly drives on the 11th and 14th and dropped three strokes on them, but he also had four birdies in a weird six-hole stretch.
Three under at the turn he had hopes of making up more lost ground on the front nine, but could not make any further progress and so will start his third round nine adrift.
At least he had stayed around for 36 more holes, though, and avoided what would have been a second successive early exit for the first time in his career.
“I wasn’t quite as sharp,” he said after what was only his eighth round since the sex scandal which sent him into hiding in November. “It’s still a process. The three-wood on 14 (into water) I tried to stop, but I got to the point where I couldn’t.
“I felt like I putted better, but unfortunately I was just a little bit too far away from the holes.”
Mickelson, needing a win with Woods outside the first five to take the number one spot for the first time, remained two under - the expected cut line - after the 14th while Luke Donald, level with Westwood overnight, was six under after 10 holes.