“I think the test is what helped me focus and focus because if you lose focus out there for a second,” McIlroy said Friday at the BMW championship, where he shares lead in a sub with Patrick Cantlay. “Only a range of focus can really cost you here.”
Here’s more on McIlroy and three other takeaways from Day 2 to BMW.
Rory gets up and with a new, old putter
Just look at the ranking.
The top is littered with big names, with McIlroy and Cantlay at the top, followed by other notables including Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott, red-hot Brendon Todd, Louis Oosthuizen, Tony Finau, and Dustin Johnson.
As for McIlroy, he made a change of putter on Friday, reverting to a club-style TaylorMade Spider X putter he had used earlier in the year after using a blade putter in the opening round. It seemed to help, at least a little, with McIlroy on the bright side of earned hits / puts after being negative -0.532 the day before.
“I tore one up on 13 [Thursday] so that was pretty much everything, “he said, explaining the exchange.” Sometimes with the blade I get a little indecisive or a little unsure of my aim.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable, so going back to something I got along well with… I thought next [Thursday] and how risky the greens are, something where you are just a little bit more confident is better. “
At that point, McIlroy scored a nine-foot birdie on his second hole of the day, the 11th par-4, another six-foot two holes later and a 40-foot bomb from the fringe on the par-3 16th. He wasn’t spectacular with the flat stick – he missed from five to 14 feet and bogeyed – but he didn’t need to be and avoided disastrous numbers on another tough day of scoring.
Tiger’s hard day
Was this the worst day Tiger Woods ever had with the putter? It depends on your definition, but it could be argued.
Consider: He rammed a 30-foot by 4-foot on the third, missed a six-foot par on the fifth, went five feet shorter from 23-foot on the sixth, was four-foot short on an 11-foot-seven and made the turn with 17 putts on his first nine holes.
The last nine weren’t much better.
On the 12th, Woods missed an eight-foot and bogeyed, came three feet shorter on a 15-footer on the 14, rammed a 60-foot too long 10-foot 15, and rolled a 35-foot eight-foot over the hole of 16.
So of course he made a 37 foot on par with the last one.
On Wednesday, Bryson DeChambeau nearly led the 444-yard 10th hole. Since the start of the tournament, things have been a little different.
DeChambeau scored just three fairways on Friday, which is actually an improvement on finding just one on Thursday. This means it is the last in the field when it comes to driving precision.
However, it wasn’t deadly for the 26-year-old. He finished three times for the week after a second round of 70 on Friday and tied for 13th place with just four strokes ahead.
What saved him? Putting, of course, with DeChambeau scoring 2,497 in shots earned / put.
“I put it very well and I feel like I’m hitting well,” he said. “There are some weird things about rotational speed going on right now and, yes, starting out that way I felt like I could go deep enough and unfortunately it’s not happening, but maybe this weekend. You never know. “
On Thursday, Hideki Matsuyama put 147 feet of putts on his way to six birdies and an opening round of 67. The next day? The 28-year-old Japanese star did all 45 feet and 4 inches of putts. So it was no wonder he only had one bird and shot three out of 73 to finish a draw for third.
It wasn’t just that he missed it. But his failures were costly. There was a seven foot par putt on the ninth, a six foot par over 10, a nine foot par 15.
Putting has always been Matsuyama’s weak point, by far, a fact made more striking when you consider that in each of the last two seasons he has finished third on tour in shots earned / tee-to-green, behind only Justin Thomas. and Rory McIlroy.
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