Rory McIlroy battles through injury, stays in contention at East Lake

ATLANTA -- Not many golfers can come into the toughest 30-man field on the PGA TOUR with an injury and still find themselves battling for a spot at the top.

There’s at least one, though.

Defending FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy came into the TOUR Championship battling a muscular, lower-back injury and after two rounds at East Lake Golf Club, he sits in solo seventh place at 10 under, six strokes behind 36-hole co-leaders Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa.

“I can't hit the ball left-to-right and -- yeah, I can't swing my irons the way I want to,” McIlroy said after his 3-under 67 on Friday. “I can't turn my right side through the ball. So from the top of the swing, I'm just sort of throwing my arms at it and it's a lot of face rotation and I can only really hit it one way with the irons.

“I can't hit the driver the way I usually do. Like, teeing it up. I'm teeing it down and just hitting a sort of flat little runner down there. So, yeah, look, a little limited to the shots that I can hit, but I'm getting by.”

Earlier in the week, while his competitors were grinding through their practice rounds and spending hours on the range in preparation for the season finale and their run at the $18 million winner’s purse, McIlroy’s arrival at East Lake included treatment for a muscle spasm in his back and hitting roughly just 20 balls on the range – his first-time hitting balls since he was in Chicago for the BMW Championship.

“I was at the bottom of a squat, a body-weight squat, and my whole lower back spasmed, seized up,” McIlroy said Thursday. “I couldn't move. I honestly couldn't address the ball this time yesterday. So to get to where I am today is good.”

McIlroy began the FedExCup Starting Strokes format at 7 under on Thursday, three behind FedExCup points leader Scottie Scheffler, and opened with an even-par 70 to finish the day three behind the first-round leaders.

Despite playing half a club off his numbers Friday and almost a full club Thursday, McIlroy ranks second in the field in Driving Distance, third in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and heads into the final two days with more than 75% of the field at East Lake in his rearview mirror.

A two-time winner this season at both THE CJ CUP in South Carolina and the Genesis Scottish Open, he entered East Lake at No. 3 in the FedExCup standings and could capture World No. 1 with a win in Atlanta. With three FedExCup victories under his belt (2016, 2019, 2022), he currently holds the record for most overall, and remains well on his way to battle for his fourth title and second consecutive FedExCup victory.