DUBLIN, Ohio — Rory McIlroy walks to the fourth tee during the second round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 02, 2023. | Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
The Northern Irishman fired a 4-under par 68 in Friday’s second round at Muirfield Village Golf Club, putting him in contention.
Rory McIlroy put himself in a good position at the Memorial Tournament heading into the weekend.
He shot a 4-under par 68 for Friday’s second round, which included six birdies, to vault up the leaderboard from 33rd to tied for 5th.
McIlroy currently sits three strokes back of Hideki Matsuyama, who shot a 7-under par 65 to ascend to the top.
Surely, McIlroy is reminiscing on Thursday’s disaster at the 18th hole. The Northern Irishman made a triple-bogey as he went from 3-under to even par in minutes.
“I felt good about everything that I did [Thursday],” McIlroy said after Friday’s round. “I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker. So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this golf tournament. [If] that rolls down it into the bunker, [I am] hopefully able to hit it on the green and make a 4, and instead of standing here at 4-under, I would be at 7-under and feeling really good about everything.”
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
DUBLIN, Ohio — Rory McIlroy reacts to a putt on the 10th green during the second round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 02, 2023.
Nonetheless, McIlroy has to put Thursday’s stumble at 18 behind him. He knows it too.
“I did a lot of good things right,” McIlroy said. “I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break sort of hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”
For McIlroy to feel “good about everything” is quite the contrast from what he said earlier in the week.
In his pre-tournament press conference at the Memorial, McIlroy revealed how he had to fight his swing at Oak Hill, even though he finished the PGA Championship tied for seventh.
“I can’t remember a time where I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” McIlroy said before the Memorial. “So I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much.”
McIlroy skipped last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge to fine-tune his swing. So far at the Memorial, his extra practice has paid off.
The four-time major winner hopes his game continues to shine so he can have a chance at winning at Jack’s Place for the first time.
