PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Defending champion Rory McIlroy is in the hunt again at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, yet he couldn’t hide the tinge of disappointment he felt in what he believes has been a “little bit wasteful” start.

McIlroy opened with rounds of 68 and 67, the first at Spyglass Hill on Thursday and the latter at Pebble Beach on Friday. That has him 9 under for the tournament, but still six shots back of leader Akshay Bhatia in what has been a historically low-scoring start to the tournament. In McIlroy’s mind, he very easily could be right in the thick of it.

“I got off to a really good start again and then stalled on the back nine again,” McIlroy said. “So I feel like I've been a little bit wasteful the last two days and maybe not capitalized on those great starts.”

McIlroy’s miscues were obvious on Thursday, when he played a marvelous round outside of two avoidable three-putts that led to a pair of double bogeys. Despite that, he was still able to shoot 4-under and rocketed up the leaderboard early on Friday after an eagle on the par-5 second and two more birdies on the fourth and seventh holes pushed him to 8-under. But McIlroy dropped shots at the 10th and 14th holes, which offset the three other birdies he made on the outward nine. McIlroy made a particular mess of the par-5 14th. Near the green in two shots, but in an awkward position near a tree, McIlroy flubbed his chip into the bunker and was unable to get up-and-down from there. He missed possible birdies at the 16th and 17th holes but was able to end with a birdie on the 18th.

“It's very low scoring, it's soft. Hopefully if I can get off to a good start again tomorrow and pick up a few shots early I'll be right in the mix,” McIlroy said.

If anything, the first two days were a reminder of the rust players still need to shake off after the offseason. McIlroy played on the DP World Tour to begin 2026, but is making his first TOUR start of the season this week. The three-putts on Thursday, which both included a miss inside 4 feet, are uncharacteristic of McIlroy. As is his middling putting performance through two rounds. McIlroy has lost more than two strokes on the greens.

“Yeah, game feels pretty good actually, feels a little bit better than it did in Dubai a couple weeks ago,” he said. “Just trying to keep building on that.”

McIlroy is part of a star-studded pack that has started solid but unspectacularly at Pebble Beach. No major champions are within four shots of the lead, but Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood are all within six shots.