Rory McIlroy needed some shine.
He struggled on the front nine, bogeyed the seventh and eighth holes and suddenly fell to 1 over for the tournament. My putter didn’t work either, and I didn’t get a single birdie in the first nine holes.
So McIlroy decided to be aggressive on the 401-yard par-4 10th. He took out a large stick and aimed it at the corner of the dogleg. knocked on the green.
This made McIlroy the first player to drive Bay Hill’s 10th green since 2003, the beginning of the Shotlink era.
“I thought if I could hit one of the two traps on the front, it would be a nice break to hit something on the green,” McIlroy said of his tee shot.
“I wasn’t trying to hit it on the green, but it was nice to get up there and see it on the green.”
McIlroy then two-putted for birdie and returned to even par for the tournament.
The Northern Irishman then hit his tee shot into the water on the next hole. Nevertheless, he went up and down from 152 yards, dropping his third to 7 feet along the way.
“Those holes, especially the 10th and 11th, got me going,” McIlroy said.
The four-time major champion then birdied the par-5 12th and par-4 13th holes. McIlroy hit a 27-footer on 13, moving him to 2-under total.
But he wasn’t done yet.
McIlroy closed out the round with three straight birdies, ultimately moving him up more than 20 spots on the leaderboard. His two birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 came from putts from 29 and 19 feet, respectively.
He closed with a 4-under 68, one of the lowest rounds of the day, but the heat and strong winds made the day extremely difficult to play. He is currently at 5 under for the total.
There’s no telling what will happen at Sunday’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, especially with McIlroy in contention for the title.
“You have to pick your spots and still be patient,” McIlroy explained.
“I think the wind is going in a different direction again.” [Sunday], so the wind and golf course play would be very different than it is today. Let’s see what happens. ”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
