Rory McIlroy blows hot and cold in second round at Memorial

Rory McIlroy has developed quite a library of books in recent times, the latest tome banked in the knowledge bank being the highly-acclaimed Range by David Epstein. Maybe there’s an edition of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lurking somewhere too, as the world number one’s second round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio provided shot-making in the extreme, from cringe to the sublime.

Indeed, McIlroy was thrown onto the back foot from the off when he followed a bogey on the 10th, his opening hole, with a double bogey on the Par 5 11th. That iconic hole became a torturous walk of 584 yards from tee to green, as his tee-shot found the water hazard down the left and, by the time he was lifting the ball out of the hole, he’d run up a double-bogey seven.

If he found himself on something of a slippery slope at that point, it was to McIlroy’s credit that he produced a rescue act that saw him sign for a 72 for a midway total of 142, two-under-par, that was comfortably inside the cut line and, although seven strokes behind second round leaders Tony Finau and Ryan Palmer, some of his play – primarily his eagle three on the Par 5 fifth – provided evidence of what he can be unleashed. Doing it more consistently going into the weekend will be the key.

“There’s some good in there; obviously, some mediocre (too), and there was some pretty poor shots. But I battled back well. I got off to a terrible start, battled back and hung in there and ended up shooting a reasonable score . . . . I came back well and that’s all you can ask for,” said McIlroy, returning to competition after a two-week break.

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McIlroy felt one of his issues on the day was his wedge shots and there was an irony that his five-wood approach on the fifth – a towering approach from 257 yards – actually finished closer to the hole than his wedge shots. “I just struggled a little bit and felt like I was in between yardages and trying to hit a lot of three-quarter shots and just not sure with my decels (declerations) on a couple. I actually hit a couple fat, which I’ve had Harry (Diamond) look at my ball position. I might have crept a little too far forward.”

Of the three Irish players in the tournament, McIlroy was alone in advancing beyond the cut mark. Shane Lowry bogeyed two of his closing four holes to miss out – signing for a 75 for a midway total of 148 – while Graeme McDowell laboured to a 76 for 155.

Palmer, the 43-year-old Texan who has four career wins on the PGA Tour, and big-hitting Finau – utilising his power game after being inspired by Bryson DeChambeau’s efforts of late – share the lead ahead of Saturday’s third round, with Spain’s Jon Rahm a shot further back.

“The key was making a few par putts. A couple, three-, four-, five-, six-footers for par that kept the round going. Overall really solid. Feel really comfortable. Hopefully I can tidy up my iron game a little bit. I made a couple mistakes, and luckily my short game bailed me out,” said Rahm, who posted a 67 for 136 to be primed for the weekend.

After a five months absence, Tiger Wood’s competitive comeback featured the good, bad and downright ugly: his swing was anything but predictable, exposed by his play of the first, his 10th hole of the round, where he ran up a double bogey six. Having missed the green left, his recovery air-mailed the putting surface and into a bunker on the opposite side.

Five-over on his round with three holes remaining, Woods fought deep to salvage something and back-to-back birdies on the seventh and eighth ultimately saw him sign for a 76 which left him on three-over-par 147. And after a long wait he just about survived the four-over-par cut.

Woods struggled during his round, affected by a back problem that developed during his pre-round warm-up session on the practice range. “It is going to happen more times than not these days . . . . I wasn’t quite moving as well as I’d like and couldn’t quite turn back and couldn’t quite clear. It was a bit of a struggle. It wasn’t quite as good as I’d like, and it is what it is,” said Woods of his discomfort.

McIlroy, who played in the same group, remarked of Woods: “He looked pretty good starting off, and then yeah, you could sort of tell when we made the turn, he hit a couple fairway wood shots off the tee that he sort of quit on. I mean, it looked a little bit that way, that he wasn’t quite moving as well. But he battled really well.”

Second round scores and totals in the USPGA Tour the Memorial Tournament (USA unless stated, par 72):

135 Tony Finau 66 69, Ryan Palmer 67 68

136 Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 67

138 Luke List 70 68, Gary Woodland 68 70, Chez Reavie 71 67

139 Jason Day (Aus) 73 66

140 Steve Stricker 73 67, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 74 66, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 74 66, Patrick Cantlay 70 70, Danny Willett (Eng) 74 66, Jim Furyk 72 68, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 74 66, Jordan Spieth 70 70

141 Justin Thomas 74 67, Lucas Glover 69 72, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 72 69, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 73 68, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 75 66

142 Matt Wallace (Eng) 72 70, Rory McIlroy (Irl) 70 72, Jimmy Walker 70 72, Patrick Rodgers 70 72, Bol Hoag 75 67

143 Brendan Steele 68 75, Kevin Na 74 69, Scott Harrington 74 69, Matt Kuchar 76 67, Harris English 70 73

144 Scottie Scheffler 71 73, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 72 72

145 Matthew Wolff 77 68, Sepp Straka (Aut) 73 72, Jason Dufner 72 73, Scott Piercy 72 73, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 72 73, William McGirt 76 69, Lanto Griffin 72 73, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 74, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 72 73, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 73, Keith Mitchell 74 71, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 75 70, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 76 69, Ryan Moore 70 75

146 Bud Cauley 75 71, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 74 72, Mark Hubbard 70 76, Adam Hadwin (Can) 76 70, Charles Howell III 69 77, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 73 73, Zach Johnson 76 70, Sung Kang (Kor) 74 72, Bubba Watson 78 68, Kevin Streelman 75 71, Phil Mickelson 72 74, Keegan Bradley 73 73, Denny McCarthy 75 71, Cameron Smith (Aus) 74 72, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 72 74, Collin Morikawa 76 70, Tyler Duncan 75 71

147 Tiger Woods 71 76, Xander Schauffele 78 69, Stewart Cink 73 74, Joel Dahmen 75 72, Brooks Koepka 72 75, Abraham Ancer (Mex) 72 75, Marc Leishman (Aus) 72 75, Brendon Todd 75 72, Billy Horschel 76 71, Patrick Reed 71 76, Corey Conners (Can) 73 74

The following players did not make the cut: +3

148 Daniel Berger 73 75, Talor Gooch 78 70, Max Homa 70 78, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 73 75, Adam Long 73 75, Shane Lowry (Irl) 73 75, Paul Casey (Eng) 71 77, Sungjae Im (Kor) 78 70, Kevin Kisner 74 74

149 Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 73 76, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 75 74, Harold Varner III 77 72, Branden Grace (Rsa) 74 75, Brian Harman 74 75, Tom Hoge 76 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 73 76, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 77, Bryson DeChambeau 73 76, Ian Poulter (Eng) 76 73, Rickie Fowler 81 68, Nick Taylor (Can) 74 75, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 74 75

150 JT Poston 76 74, Peter Kuest 77 73, Brian Stuard 75 75, Vaughn Taylor 76 74, Alex Noren (Swe) 73 77, Jim Herman 73 77, Webb Simpson 76 74

151 Haotong Li (Chn) 74 77, Wyndham Clark 72 79, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 75 76

152 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 74 78, Doc Redman 76 76, Harry Higgs 74 78, Troy Merritt 75 77, Cameron Champ 75 77

153 Matthew NeSmith 74 79, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 71 82, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 74 79

154 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 79 75, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 75 79, Andrew Landry 79 75, Zac Blair 76 78

155 Graeme McDowell (Irl) 79 76, Victor Perez (Fra) 77 78

156 Andrew Putnam 76 80

157 Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 79 78, Kevin Tway 78 79

158 Maverick McNealy 81 77, (a) Andy Ogletree 77 81

160 Dustin Johnson 80 80, Kyung Ju Choi (Kor) 79 81

164 David Lingmerth (Swe) 82 82