McIlroy rebounds after tough stretch, sits four back

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Rory McIlroy fell into the claws of temptation on Friday at the U.S. Open and paid the price.

Thankfully for the Northern Irishman, he was able to rebound to some extent and head into the weekend with a great chance to claim a fifth major championship, his first since 2014.

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McIlroy shot a 2-under 69 on Friday to move to 5-under for the championship, leaving him T-4 and four shots back of Gary Woodland’s lead. He could have been much closer had he stayed disciplined.

When the 16-time PGA TOUR winner reached the par-4 13th hole, he could smell the lead at Pebble Beach, having already posted three birdies on his round without a blemish. Add to that the burgeoning confidence coming from his win last week at the RBC Canadian Open, and the 30-year-old lunged for the carrot when it dangled in front of him.

With a 164-yards to the flag, McIlroy sensed a chance to go for the pin tucked back on the right, but flared the approach into a greenside bunker and failed to get up and down.

“I wasn't disciplined enough with my second shot. I was trying to hit something into that back right corner of the green when I've really been preaching middle of the greens all week,” McIlroy lamented.

“I was feeling good about myself, 6-under-par, and felt like I could squeeze a couple more out of the round, the last couple of holes and maybe get the lead going into the weekend.”

While a bogey at the U.S. Open is certainly not uncommon, McIlroy compounded the error with two more poorly executed shots one hole later. Sitting just 107 yards out from the par-5 14th in two, McIlroy spun his wedge back off the false front – a feat made more surprising given he had watched television coverage of Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth make the exact mistake in the morning. Unlike that duo, he then failed to get on the green in four, dumping another wedge into a bunker before ultimately walking off with a double bogey.

“When you're standing there with a wedge in your hand, the ball is above your feet on the fairway, you don't really want it going left. It's very easy to tug it just slightly off the hill and go into that heavy rough on the left just off the green. So I was sort of guarding against that, and I probably missed by four or five yards right of where I needed to,” he sighed.

“Then you're in an awkward spot, you're trying to play a very precise shot to get it close to the hole to save your par, and that didn't go to plan. It just sort of compounded the error with another error, which you never really want to do.”

Rather than dwell on the developments, the current PLAYERS champion fought back with back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th holes. As such, he remains extremely confident.

“I said to myself going into the 14th I want to get those shots back that I just lost, I want to get back to 3-under par,” the 2011 U.S. Open champ added.

“I didn't quite get those three shots back, but 2-under for the last four after what happened, I’m very pleased with. Really happy with my position going into the weekend… Two rounds in the 60s, if another couple rounds in the 60s, I'll take my chances.”