Rory McIlroy shot a ho-hum 72 on Thursday in the first round of The Players Championship. He trailed Jason Day by nine. All of that changed on Friday as McIlroy shot an 8-under 64 to go into the clubhouse having climbed into the top 10 with 36 holes remaining in the tournament.
"This course really does play so much differently from morning to afternoon," said McIlroy. "You have seen what the guys did [Thursday] morning. You've seen what a few of the guys did this morning. You can almost feel it as the day goes on, as your round progresses in the morning."
McIlroy tied a course record by shooting a 29 on the back nine at TPC Sawgrass on Friday (McIlroy's group started on No. 10). It was also his first nine-hole score under 30 since joining the PGA Tour. He started with four straight birdies on the back nine.
Here's how it went: birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, par, birdie, eagle, par, par.
The crown jewel was his eagle on the 16th hole from 53 feet away.
McIlroy needed just 10 putts over the nine holes to tie Shane Lowry's course record of 29 on the back nine (which Lowry just happened to set on Thursday). There have been 15 scores of 30 on the back nine at Sawgrass but none of 29 until this week. Now there have been two.
From 1982-2015, there were 14,802 rounds @TPCSawgrass - 0 scores of 29 on the back 9. There have been 2 this week.
-- Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) May 13, 2016
The front nine, where McIlroy has traditionally struggled on this course, did not go quite as well. McIlroy made three birdies and went to the final hole (No. 9), needing another one for a course record of 62. He laid up from the middle of the fairway on the par 5, though, and ended up making bogey for the 64.
It was an anticlimactic ending to what was a pretty incredible 18 holes of golf up to that point.
"[I was thinking about the course record] a little bit.," said McIlroy. "You know that a few guys have shot 63 here, it would have been nice to shoot 62. And I knew that playing the last that ... yeah, I was thinking about it. I wanted to make birdie and shoot 62."
He didn't sound much more pleased with the round overall.
"Disappointment. I'm frustrated. It should have been a couple better," said McIlroy of his 64, which was one of the three best scores of the tournament. "but it's still a great round. It moves me up the leaderboard and hopefully I'm just not too far away going into the weekend."
And it was needed from McIlroy. To watch him is to watch someone strike golf balls the way they were meant to be struck. So to see him wobble to an opening round of 72 after murdering drive after drive 320 yards into the middle of the fairway is pretty disappointing.
It's been his approach shots that have been sub-par. And there is not a putter in existence that's magical enough to solve approach shot woes.
On Friday, McIlroy's approaches could not have been more precise. As a result, he gained 4.5 strokes from tee to green and 2.2 with his putter. As his reward, McIlroy will get an afternoon tee time on Saturday to try and chase down Jason Day and Co.
