BMW Championship: Rory McIlroy’s driver results in disappointing spherical

Rory McIlroy couldn’t get issues going Friday on the BMW Championship.

He completed his spherical proper the place he began: at 5-under for the event. He carded an even-par 70 for his second spherical.

“Fairly mediocre,” McIlroy stated of his play on Friday. “Total, I hit it a little bit higher off the tee. I had a few huge [misses] on 7 and 15. However I don’t really feel like I performed too completely different to how I performed yesterday. I simply acquired a bit extra out of my spherical yesterday.”

The day earlier than, McIlroy shot a 5-under 65, regardless of hitting simply three fairways. His miraculous ‘hit and hope’ birdie on the par-4 seventeenth was the spotlight of the day, which put him in a share of the lead after the primary spherical.

Quick ahead a day, and McIlroy now sits 5 again of Max Homa, who blistered Olympia Fields en path to taking pictures the course file.

Photograph by Michael Reaves/Getty Photos

On the par-4 seventh, one of many holes McIlroy alluded to, he pushed his tee-shot miles proper of the green. He was fortunate to flee with a par, due to an eight-foot putt he holed.

Later, on the par-5 fifteenth, McIlroy rifled his tee ball deep into the woods proper of the green, forcing a penalty drop. That led to his first—and up to now solely—bogey of the championship.

But, 34-year-old has not been penalized an excessive amount of for his inaccuracies due to the delicate circumstances at Olympia Fields.

The Chicago-area course has acquired over two inches of rain this week, and the gamers have taken full benefit.

“I definitely haven’t performed a golf course the place the greens have been this delicate in fairly some time,” McIlroy stated.

“However there are nonetheless some greens that you just’d virtually moderately—particularly to a few of these again pins—you’d moderately be hitting out of the tough than out of the green as a result of it gained’t spin again on you. Hopefully, it corporations up over the weekend, and if it does, we’ll all must hit a number of extra fairways.”

Photograph by Michael Reaves/Getty Photos

On the few events McIlroy discovered the brief grass off the tee, he had the inexperienced gentle to assault the flag stick.

For example, on the tenth gap, McIlroy hammered his tee shot 334 yards over the bunker on the left nook of the green. It was arguably the most effective drive he hit all week.

“That [second] shot into 10, that was 105 [yards], so I’ve like a 105-yard shot with my sand wedge, which is the bottom shot that I’ve,” McIlroy defined. “So if I went to a different wedge, say my 50-degree wedge, I don’t follow hitting my 50 [degree] 105 [yards], so I don’t actually know what swing to placed on it. That’s as simple as I can hit a sand wedge, and I attempted to take spin-off, and it nonetheless spun.”

McIlroy’s second shot at 10 landed as soon as and spun off the entrance of the inexperienced, thus eliminating any probability of constructing a birdie.

That occurred a number of instances Friday.

However he would moderately have that occur than discover the penalty space off the tee.

Nonetheless, the four-time main winner should discover extra fairways if he needs to trace down Homa. As a result of proper now, McIlroy ranks useless final in driving accuracy on the BMW Championship, which doesn’t occur typically.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By means of. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko for extra golf protection. You should definitely take a look at @_PlayingThrough too.