He's back - Rory McIlroy struts his stuff at Birkdale

His demeanour told its own story. There was a narrowing of his eyes, a strut too that a peacock would have been proud of. Rory McIlroy's first action of the second round of the 146th British Open was to take his 3-wood from caddie JP Fitzgerald and propel the ball 372 yards to its resting place on the fairway. First task of the day accomplished, he set off after it like a righteous man on a mission.

When he walked down to the ball, McIlroy hit one of those bump and runs that testify to a man’s creativity, and confidence. And when he marked his ball, four feet from the flag, and then replaced it, he calmly rolled it in and listened as the sound of golf ball hitting tin confirmed an opening birdie. Three perfect shots. He was off and running, a changed man from the one who’d ventured forth over that front nine in the opening round a day earlier.

In fact, by the time McIlroy left the ninth green, he had garnered three birdies and suffered no dropped shots. His 31 to the turn represented an eight stroke improvement on the 39 it had taken him on Thursday. And, by the end, McIlroy’s second round 68 for a midway total of 139, one-under-par, had enabled him to leapfrog over more than 50 players. From battling to survive the cut, he jumped into contention for a fifth career Major title. The strut was entitled.

Transformed

Before our eyes, a transformation had taken place. After back-to-back missed cuts in the Irish and Scottish Opens, and a horrid front nine on Thursday that required stern words from caddie JP Fitzgerald to stir the senses, McIlroy’s play over the next 27 holes - encapsulating his back nine on Thursday and entire round on Friday - were as contrasting as night is to day.

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Rory McIlroy right back in the thick of things

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Lo and behold, the putter was no longer disobedient either: he needed only 24 putts in a second round that had changed the reactions from those spectators on the sand hills, as, increasingly, the cries of “Rory” generated a momentum to go with the player’s own play.

And when it looked as if some speed bumps would throw him off course, the putter worked as his saviour. On the 10th and 11th, he sank par saving putts. “They’re the putts that haven’t quite been going in over the past few weeks. That’s all it takes to keep a round going . . . there was a lot of quality out there and I was happy to see that. I just have to try to keep that going for the next two days,” admitted McIlroy.

McIlroy's two playing partners seemed to be playing a different course. Charl Schwartzel, all too frequently, was in knee high fescue like a man finding his way through the jungle. Dustin Johnson's iron play was uncharacteristically off target. "I guess I'm not playing that good, but I'm getting it up around the green; and my short game has been really good. I've chipped and putted it really well the last two days, I'm just not striking it that well with the irons," confessed the world number one.

With designs on a second Claret Jug and a fifth career Major, McIlroy has ironed out many of the problems which plagued him in recent tournaments. The crispness of his ball-striking is back, and no longer a fear of how the signals from his brain to his hands will be interpreted with the putter.

Positive

McIlroy’s round took shape early on, that birdie putt on the first followed by a 10-footer on the third and, after powering a huge drive over the fairway bunkers down the sixth, a faded iron to three feet for his third in six holes. The homeward journey played tougher, and with bogeys on the 13th and 15th (after a poor drive into heavy rough), it only bore fruit with a birdie on the Par 5 17th.

“I was very proud of myself that I hung in there and tried to stay as positive as I possibly could. But, look, I just had to turn it around. I had to find a couple of little keys, mental things, that I tell myself before I step in to hit a shot or step in to hit a putt. Very simple, but obviously quite effective over the past 27 holes, and I feel like I have. And I went with those and it worked. I’ll try to keep those in my head going forward the next couple of days.”

McIlroy’s season so far has been disrupted by injury, and time off for his wedding. It has been stop/start, and those two missed cuts heading in here only served to underscore those issues. At one stage of his front nine on Thursday, his odds on the exchanges ballooned out to 360/1 and out to 90/1 with the bookmakers. Now, he is back as one of the favourites. It’s where he wants to be, playing with all the pressure of chasing a title rather than the pressure of making a cut.