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The brutal Olympia Fields organize a survival weekend

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Players will deny this, but there have been reports that a collective of them sneaked back to Olympia Fields on Friday to perform a rain dance.

With the former US Open venue playing just as it would for a national championship, only two players sit below par after 36 holes. Hard and fast fairways, greens and tough rough only see FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay in one below.

Only two others, last week’s champion and current FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, are on par. The other 65 players lick their wounds and pray for rain.

And they are likely to get it. The forecast gave a 60% chance of thunderstorms and rain overnight. Of course this means a 40% chance of having none. And McIlroy for a hope that it is.


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Last year’s seasonal running champion is delighted that this represents the fewest under-par players in two rounds in a non-major since 2000. Yet he has missed two strokes in the last five holes. The average of the scores in two rounds is 72,775 on the par 70 track.

“I said last week after the tournament, if you need someone who pulls between draws and 2-unders, I’m your man, so I love these conditions,” he said.

“This is true golf. This is you really have to think about things, you have to land on your numbers, you have to put it into play. Those species of five, six feet per pars to keep the momentum going are huge. It’s good to play golf like this again. “

McIlroy is obviously happy to be where he is halfway, but expects those who rejoin the group to come after those with a current advantage. If the field gets some moisture from rain or maintenance irrigation, it is likely to dry out as the day progresses.

“We should rain a little tonight, but I don’t think enough to really soften it. I think you’ll see over the weekend the boys start early, they’ll be able to get some decent scores, and then as the day goes by and the last tee times come out, it’ll get progressively harder as the day goes by, “McIlroy said.

“I think something like remembering the PLAYERS championship when it was back in May, the guys would go out on Sundays, six or seven back, roll a 66 and go around the clubhouse all day and wait and see what happens to the guys on the way. I think that you might see something like this this weekend. “

Johnson won last week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST at 30 under par. He knows the winner might be lucky to be three under this week. A long bird on the last hole on Friday brought him to level and in contention to return against each other in the playoffs.

Both he and McIlroy share a record of five FedExCup Playoffs so far in their careers.

“It’s a completely different golf course, completely different conditions. It is solid and fast and it is a lot of fun to play this type of golf. I like it. It’s very difficult, but you have to stay focused all day, and you really have to pick your spots where you can be a little aggressive, ”Johnson said of the tackle that saw the field an over-par collective 383 for two rounds.

“Last week was also fun. But this week is harder, that’s for sure. Every single hole out here is difficult. You really have to focus on every shot you hit. “

Matsuyama is the only player on the field to have hit four unders throughout the tournament so far, doing so with a sublime chip for a par-3 eighth-hole birdie on Friday. Unfortunately, it was his final highlight, and four bogeys followed.

“I wasn’t able to drive the ball well today so it was a tough round,” he said. “I’m just happy to be in a position where I can compete on the weekend.”

Cantlay needed a holey eagle, a chip-in birdie, and a 42-foot birdie putt on the last hole to keep his total under par. The two-time winner knows he cannot rely on this in the last 36 holes.

“The golf course is really, really good, but it’s very, very difficult. The chip-ins obviously helped a lot, and you don’t do it every day, so I need to do a little better on the weekend.

But for a busy day, it was excellent, ”Cantlay mused.

“It’s as tough a test as you would like. It’s very, very difficult, and you have to play from the fairway, and you have to play from under the hole, frankly. The greens have so much slope that you really have to put yourself uphill, so if you’re in the rough, it becomes exponentially harder to do so. “

The former UCLA champion believes the key to victory will be maintaining a lead level.

“You have to understand that you will make mistakes,” he explained. “You’ll be boggling just because of the difficulty of the golf course and always having an advanced mindset instead of thinking about what happened or what mistakes you made is really important.”

Those who dwell on mistakes will no doubt be forever bogged down in the clouds … and not the rain clouds they desire.

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