“I hit it much better in the second round”.
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PGA EURASIAN: Australia’s Nathan Holman shot a 7-under 64 in hot conditions at Royal Selangor to take a one-stroke lead in the inaugural Maybank Championship Malaysia.
Rory McIlroy admits that sometimes he has to pinch himself at the way his life has turned out – and also that he used to feel slightly guilty about it.
“Then looking further ahead, getting into the top 100 in the world rankings is a realistic aim”.
McIlroy started birdie-birdie, and his lone mistake was a tee shot into a deep bunker on No. 15, leaving him no chance at reaching the green.
It would be shocking if Thursday’s showing doesn’t end up as Spieth’s worst round in 2016. Johnson has been runner-up each of the last two years.
Only one other player in the 144-man field shot worse than Spieth. “The back nine was a little scrappy”. Round 1 he was able to make his fair share of putts on these tricky surfaces.
Behind Kokrak is countryman Chez Reavie, who shot a second-round 67.
Meanwhile, at the top of the leaderboard, American Dustin Johnson shot 66 to set the early halfway pace on eight under alongside journeyman Troy Meritt, with former world number one Adam Scott on five under.
Camilo Villegas, who opened with a 63, made double bogey on his second hole and wound up with a 74.
Spieth said Friday that sloppy iron play and not enough time practicing on the driving range was his downfall at Riviera Country Club.
“Yeah, definitely. I can fire at pins”, Spieth said. “Today the same. I hit it really well, had a lot of good looks at birdie and just holed a couple more putts”. ‘It’s just unfortunate when it does’. Like I said yesterday, my game felt fine. Cameron (McCormick, his coach) is here and there was nothing pinpointed that was wrong. There’s a 9-under round right now, and I think I can do that. You’ve got to hit a lot of different shots, and it never plays easy. “It’s an all around fantastic golf course that you don’t get away with poor shots at all”.
“I went through a few tournaments after Hawaii (where he won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January by eight shots) thinking that’s what I’m going to do every week”, Spieth explained. “This golf course can firm up very quickly”. “I’m not packing it in by any means”.
Spieth won’t play next week’s Honda Classic, instead returning for the WGC-Cadillac championship in two weeks, followed by a title defense at the Valspar Championship one week later.
In contrast, Rory McIlroy was content with his opening-round effort at his first ever appearance at the event. Didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. On the 597-yard hole, Kokrak bombed a 321-yard drive and used his 4-wood to flight a 271-yard approach to just 25 feet short of the flag, in the rough.
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McIlroy told pgatour.com: “It was a solid round of golf”. He got up and down there for this third birdie in a four-hole stretch. However, he blemished his round with a bogey five on the final hole which saw him miss out on the chance to equal the course record. Two were victories, including the U.S. Open. He missed a cut for the 13th time out of 83 official stroke-play events he has played as a pro worldwide.
