If someone this time next week tells you that Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are in contention to win a golf tournament, you are going to want to get to a television as soon as possible. As it stands this week, both are among the top 15 on the 2024 Texas Open leaderboard looking to enter the 88th Masters -- the first major championship of 2024 -- with some momentum.
McIlroy followed his Thursday 69 with a Friday 70 to sit six back of leader Akshay Bhatia with 36 holes to go. However, he's just one stroke behind second place, currently occupied by Brendon Todd and Russell Henley. Bhatia is still holding onto the top spot after scoring 63-70 in the opening two rounds as he looks for his first PGA Tour victory.
McIlroy's struggles this year -- iron play and huge numbers at bad times -- have been obvious. He has just one bogey through 36 holes, gaining strokes on the field each of the first two days. Whether that's attributed to a visit with swing coach Butch Harmon or simply time working on the swing is up in the air, but what's indisputable is that he's hitting approach shots with more consistency.
"Hit a couple of good shots into the par 3s," he said. "It's been better, definitely better than the last few weeks. Still work to do but heading in the right direction.
"I think [avoiding big numbers] was the goal going into those last two weeks and obviously into this week was just trying to get a lot of that out of the system and playing a bit smarter," he said. "Hitting the shots that I know that I can hit, but at the same time, I'm a little more confident in my golf swing than I was a few weeks ago so that makes it easier.
He had another exchange that was fascinating given where he's at and what's at stake over the next two weeks. Here's how it went.
You said on Wednesday that good Augusta golf is boring golf. Is that kind of what you're playing now?
McIlroy: "Yeah, yeah. That's it, yeah. Ton of pars."
Continuing that to next week?
McIlroy: "Yeah, yeah, for sure. And not just for big major championship golf, that is what you need to do."
Is that difficult to kind of get in that mindset because you do see pins and you do see things ...
McIlroy: "Yeah, I can do it. Like LACC, the U.S. Open last year is probably the best example of me doing that; [I] was very patient. St. Andrews a little bit, even though the scoring was low. Same sort of thing, you pick and choose where you're aggressive and then you're conservative a lot of the time. You add it up at the end of the week, you're always going to be pretty close."
Is there something mentally that you do kind of right in the moment, or is that just something that you focus on in advance?
McIlroy: "I think it's an acceptance that you're going to make a lot of pars. It's maybe going to feel frustrating at times, but knowing that you're not losing ground by doing it and accepting that fact, that's a big key to it."
This describes Scottie Scheffler's two-year run well: immense discipline, even when it doesn't feel like things are breaking the way you want. Sticking with a game plan. Nothing that's going to get you on a highlight reel but plenty of things that will get you in the winner's circle. McIlroy destroys the par 5s at Augusta National. If he plays par golf everywhere else, he will almost certainly be in the hunt on the weekend.
Whether he will be disciplined enough to do that for an entire week of the Masters remains to be seen, but his movement in the week leading into the only major he lacks is heading in the right direction.
Speaking of circles ... and squares ... and no pars at all ...
Spieth birdied four of his first five holes at TPC San Antonio on Friday and three more later in his round. Through 36 holes, he has put the following on his card.
- 1 hole-in-one
- 11 birdies
- 8 bogeys
- 1 double bogey
- 14 3s
- 11 5s
Spieth is -- I believe this is obvious by now -- the least-normal golfer in the world. After two rounds, he's (somehow) 3 under and just two back of McIlroy going into the final 36 holes.
The encouraging part regarding Spieth is that he believes he's playing tremendous golf, and any time he's played even remotely good golf leading into the Masters, he has put together a great week at Augusta National. The golf right now, well, it's wild ... but it's also quite good at times.
Spieth has 11 birdies and an eagle through two rounds, numbers one will certainly take at Augusta. For him, it will come down to doing what Rory is doing this week, which is eliminating big numbers at a big-boy golf course six days from now.
Both McIlroy and Spieth are among the top six favorites to win the Masters. Both are live to do so right now based on how they are playing. McIlroy is calmer and less volatile than he has been recently. Spieth is his usual, wild self which he can (I think!) mostly manage, especially at Augusta.
They're worth following this weekend at TPC San Antonio, especially with what's coming next week at 1,100 miles to the East.
