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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Rory McIlroy walked to the 17th tee with that triangular hotel looming off in the distance. As media knelt behind a fence made of chicken wire to see what line the No. 2 player in the world would take over the Road Hole Hotel, an eruption took place in the grandstands -- Ro-ry! Ro-ry! Ro-ry! -- as McIlroy torched a cut right off the edge of the hotel property to set up one of the best shots of Round 2 at the 150th Open Championship.

First, though, we must rewind five hours just after McIlroy teed off. As Game 45 walked down the first fairway, Game 19 walked up the 18th. Tiger Woods was part of the latter, and McIlroy lightly tipped his cap toward his former childhood hero. As Tiger finished off his 9-over missed cut, the crowd made clear what had happened, as if the symbolism wasn't enough. Whatever faction of the crowd had been holding out hope for Tiger was now wholeheartedly rooting for Rory.

McIlroy didn't disappoint. After a lackluster 35 on the front nine, he ripped off three straight birdies on the back and eyed the pair of Camerons at the top of the Open leaderboard. A bogey at No. 15 was disappointing, but he rebounded about as well as one can rebound, which leads us back to the 17th hole.

McIlroy's drive there ended left of the fairway, but he went after a right pin, hit it to 25 feet and rolled in one of just six birdies on the day (out of 156 participants). The hole played to a 4.3 scoring average in Round 2 and ranked as Friday's toughest hole.

"It came out a touch hotter than I thought it was," said McIlroy. "So, luckily, I was thinking it was going to land in that bottom section there before the slope, and it landed right into the hill. So, it probably flew, I don't know, maybe 8 yards longer than I thought it was going to. Thankfully, I had the hill there to stop it."

It felt like an important moment in the championship. McIlroy gave a subtle but meaningful fist pump, and the grandstands thundered. As 3s go, McIlroy hasn't made many better than that one, and it was his first birdie on the Road Hole in six attempts across Open Championships at the Old Course.

"I think so," said McIlroy when asked if that was a turning point. "I think 16 and 17 were important after making the bogey on 15 to make a nice par save on 16 and then to birdie 17, that was a nice little turning point in the round. It would have been nice to follow that up with a 3 at the last as well, but that was big because I didn't want to make two bogeys in a row. That was a big putt on 16. And then to follow that up with a 3 ... I felt like I saved a couple of shots there."

McIlroy parred the last for a 68 to back up his 66 from Thursday. He's one back of Cameron Young and two back of Cameron Smith after 36 holes. It wasn't the one-hand-on-the-jug Round 2 some were hoping Rory would deliver, but he maintained the pace necessary to give himself a shot entering the weekend.

The good news for McIlroy is that he's hitting it far better than the leader, Smith, who has gained almost all of his strokes at this event with a smoking hot putter. Whether that's sustainable remains to be seen, though he is one of game's elite putters. Still, it's a difficult level to maintain.

The weekend -- like the entire week -- feels important, both for McIlroy's legacy and the game of golf itself. Winning any major is substantial, and winning any Open is a triumph, but the 150th Open at St. Andrews -- the one in which Tiger cried coming up No. 18 on Friday? The one major that stands between now and the rest of the PGA Tour-LIV Golf battle that will play out the rest of the year and beyond? It feels almost incomprehensibly consequential.

That's a lot of weight to drag around, but McIlroy has spoken plenty this week about how good his game feels and how calm and still he's been on the course, even in the midst of a chaotic Open. As he drinks in a full week, perhaps that emotion -- like that displayed by Woods -- will spill over Sunday if he comes up No. 18 with his own bit of history in sight.

"I know I've got the game," McIlroy said on Friday. "That's all I need. I just need to go out and play my game and play my golf over the next two days and that's all I can do. Cam Smith goes out and shoots another two rounds like he did the first two days, I'm going to have a really hard time to win the tournament.

"So, I've just got to go out and do the best I can and worry about myself, and hopefully that's good enough."

This feels like Rory's Open. That's probably an absurd thing to say after Round 2 with so much golf remaining and so many great players in contention, but Friday seemed like his "let's get my bad round out of the way for the week" round, which means the next two days could be special. If the Road Hole was a harbinger of what's to come, it's going to be spectacular.

As McIlroy hit a peeling cut into the 18th green, he held his finish for a couple extra beats. The picture was a painting. Then, Rory walked in Tiger's footsteps over the Swilican Bridge and up to the 18th green.

The question now is whether McIlroy can walk in Woods' 2000 and 2005 footsteps when he rolled up two Claret Jugs at this course. McIlroy received a different reception than Woods at the last. Excited, yes, but also hopeful about the weekend.

The crowd, it seemed, was saving something for Sunday.

Rick Gehman is joined by Mark Immelman to recap Friday's action at the 2022 Open Championship. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.