'Resilient' Rory recovers and rallies
McIlroy's slam quest is back in business; Spanish am regrets breach in decorum
Rory McIlroy fires the low second round 66 to climb to third (Chris Turvey/Masters)
The way things ended for Rory McIlroy on Thursday didn’t portend to a good beginning on Friday.
But the four-time major champion who is trying to win his first Masters bounced back nicely from a horrific finish during the first round to put himself in contention, just two strokes behind leader Justin Rose at 8-under. McIlroy is tied for third at 6-under with Corey Conners, just one behind Bryson DeChambeau in second.
“I think overall just proud of myself with how I responded today after the finish last night,” said McIlroy after his low-round-of-the-day 66. “I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf yesterday, and I wasn’t going to let two bad holes sort of dictate the narrative for the rest of the week. Ultimately, just proud of how I got back into it today.”
McIlroy recovered with patience, a trait he has admitted has sometimes not been in enough supply.
With Rose having shot a first-day 65 and reaching as low as 9-under par on the back on Friday morning, McIlroy was just 1-under through nine holes of his second round and seemingly in need to a burst.
He got it with consecutive kick-in birdies at the 10th and 11th holes, two of the harder holes — the 11th is playing as the second toughest — and then made an eagle at the par-5 13th after worrying he had hit his approach in the water.
“When the ball was in the air, I was like, you idiot, what did you do?” McIlroy said. “It’s one of those ones, as well, it’s a pin that even if you do hit it into the hazard, it’s not a routine up-and-down, but it’s a little easier than, say, where the pin was yesterday in that front section.
“I rode my luck a little bit with that second shot but was nice to take advantage of it.”
McIlroy’s shot barely cleared the creek onto the right front corner of the green and left him with a 9-footer he converted for eagle.
When he added birdie at the 15th, things had completely changed from a day earlier, when McIlroy made doubles from over the back at both the 15th and 17th holes to severely hurt his chances. He went from 4-under par to even in a matter of moments and outside of the top 20.
“I was obviously surprised that I had done that,” McIlroy said of the pitch shot that he hit onto the 15th and saw roll into the water. “And I forgot that I could try to play it again. I went straight to the drop zone, and then afterwards, I was thinking, like, oh, I could have tried to just chip that again.
“But it was just one of those things . . . I was so frustrated last night because I played so well, and you can make these big numbers from absolutely nowhere on this golf course, just like the most benign position.
“It was a good reminder last night that you just have to have your wits about it you on every single golf shot. And then today, when the second shot was in the air, it was a little touch and go. Even where the ball finished sort of on the slope, I was thinking of running to mark it to make sure it wasn’t going to run back down the hill.
“It was nice to make a 4 there. I guess just keep the momentum going that I had built up through those previous holes, 10, 11, 13.”
McIlroy always comes into the Masters with considerable hype as he needs the green jacket to complete a career grand slam. He’s been in this position since winning his third different major at the 2014 British Open.
A month later, he won the PGA Championship for the second time, securing a fourth major title — a number he’s now been stuck on for 11 years.
At age 35, this year seemed a bit different. McIlroy, ranked second in the Official World Golf Ranking, has been playing as well as anyone in the world for six months. He won at Pebble Beach and the Players Championship and two weeks ago was tied for fourth at the Houston Open.
While his bounceback was critical, it hasn’t got the job done with half the Masters still ahead.
“I don’t think I proved anything,” McIlroy said. “If anything, I just backed up the belief that I have in myself, and the belief that I’m as resilient as anyone else out here. I’ve been really proud of how resilient I’ve been the whole way throughout my career, and I think today was just another example of that.”
McIlroy, however, was not getting ahead of himself. Energized? Not really, he said. He was exhausted after the quick turnaround from Thursday night to Friday morning.
He’ll have to time to rest before a late afternoon third-round tee time.
“It’s only halfway,” he said. “We’ve got 36 holes to go on a very, very tough golf course. Anything can happen. And all I’m focused on is trying to hit a good tee shot in the fairway on the first hole tomorrow.”
Scottie Scheffler offers Jose Luis Ballester encouragement before second round (Chris Condon/Masters)
Spaniard apologizes for breach and moves on
Jose Luis Ballester undoubtedly learned some good lessons in his first trip to the Masters.
Some he will take with him from his experience on the course while playing with defending champion Scottie Scheffler and two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas.
The others will come from his lack of decorum on Thursday in which he urinated on the course, the story going viral.
Although Ballester would not say if Augusta National Golf Club officials admonished him, he expressed regret for his breach of etiquette after the second round.
“I already apologized to the club, and I think we just move on from this moment,” he said.
Ballester said “I try to stay away from social media” and didn’t follow the viral response to his faux pas.
“A couple friends reached out just to say, ‘Hey, you’ll be fine; I’m still your friend,” he said. “So yeah, it’s good to have those friends that have your back when the news is not that good about you.”
The 21-year-old Arizona State golfer shot scores of 76-78 to miss the cut while both pros he played with made it. Ballester said it was a great learning experience.
“These guys are here especially because of how good they are around the greens, how much knowledge they have, how good they are at perceiving the slopes and reading greens,” Ballester said. “I hit many good shots with drivers and irons both days, but what I felt that those guys are in a completely level from where I am is around the greens. It was not a great week for me in that aspect, but also looking forward to the next opportunities that I get to see how I compare myself with them.”