The second round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands was eventful, as Rory McIlroy opened up a lead only to crash down the leaderboard after a couple of nightmare holes. But the Irishman is not out of it as he steadied the ship late on and will likely set about chasing Xander Schauffele at the weekend.
Rory McIlroy carded a quadruple bogey and a double bogey as he tumbled out of the lead at the Travelers Championship.
After producing a sizzling opening round, he breezed into a healthy advantage mid-way through the second 18 holes before things completely unravelled.
It was Xander Schauffele who took advantage of McIlroy’s back-nine woes to move into a five-shot lead at 14-under at TPC River Highlands.
McIlroy made a stunning start with birdies on one and three, but a mistake off the tee on the fourth hole drew a horrible lie in a bunker.
After considering a number of options, he hit the ball with one foot in the sand and the other on a bank – and scuttled the ball forwards but he was unable to make a par putt.
He thrilled the crowd on the seventh, as his putt did a full 360 degrees of the cup before dropping in for another birdie.
He breezed to 13-under with the minimum of fuss, but things went awry on the 12th.
At 390 yards, it is a hole that is a tease for players as they have a host of options. They can take a driver and bang it over the bunker on the right, play an iron and leave a longer second or take a three wood and play to the left of the bunker. McIroy went for the latter and pulled it out of bounds. The re-load went way to the right, from where he could only find a greenside bunker from a difficult lie. He sent his bunker shot over the other side of the green, and his chip – his sixth shot – failed to find the putting surface.
It all resulted in a quadruple-bogey eight, and would require a trawl through the archives to find the last time he hit five shots in a row as bad as he did on the 12th.
The driveable par-four 15th is the ultimate risk-reward hole. McIlroy risked by taking aim at the green, but he went way right and found an awful lie. He left the chip short, but worse was to follow as he thinned his third into the water and was left to pencil a double-bogey six on his card.
He regrouped with a birdie on 16 to finish even-par for the day, and six adrift of Schauffele. Seven birdies in a round of even par is quite the roller coaster.
Schauffele hit every green in regulation on day one. That run ended on the first hole on Friday, but he still went bogey-free for a second successive 63 to open up a five-shot lead.
Harris English has had a torrid time with injury, but surgery in February to remedy a long-standing hip problem appears to be paying off and he surged up the leaderboard as he bids to defend the title he won 12 months ago.
“The hip is doing better,” said English following his round of 65 to move to nine-under. “The toughest thing is walking and playing. I mean, I feel like back home I can go hit a bunch of balls on the range, but up and down these hills and being on your feet for five or six hours is the toughest part.”
Patrick Cantlay was another player to ease into contention, joining the likes of English, Kevin Kisner and Nick Hardy on nine-under.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler added a 67 to his opening 68 to sit at five-under.
Jordan Spieith will not be around for the weekend, but he can take confidence from a 66 on Friday after the horror show in the opening round.
