“If anything, I’m probably just not as sharp with the short game as I’d like to be”, McIlroy said after a round that included an eagle, just two birdies and a double-bogey at the tricky 18th, his ninth hole of the day.
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US-based Swede David Lingmerth made eight birdies, including a 35-footer at the last, in a round of 70 to move to seven-under par.
He is one stroke ahead of reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth, who is in a second-place tie with Scott Piercy and Brendan Steele among those who have completed 36 holes. Dustin Johnson, who was leading the tournament after Thursday, shot a 1-over round of 73 to put him at 5-under for the tournament, tied for 12th with Danny Lee and George Coetzee.
Only Spieth’s fellow Texan Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000) have won three Majors in one calendar year. It looks as if he’ll be a factor come the weekend.
And while his winless streak in the majors is at 23 dating to the 2008 U.S. Open, only once in the last six years has he gone into the final round within three shots or fewer of the lead. “I just never got a putt”. “I just had no feel at all the speed on the greens”.
After making the cut in the US PGA for the first time, Spieth joked: “We are freerolling now”.
The 22-year-old shot a second round of 67 at the US PGA Championship for a six-under-par aggregate which leaves him as the clear favourite to win his third major of 2015. Hiroshi Iwata on Friday improved 14 shots over his opening round of the PGA Championship, shooting the 27th 63 in men’s major championship history – the lowest score ever recorded in major men’s competition.
World number one Rory McIlroy, back in action to defend his PGA Championship crown after five weeks out due to an ankle injury, carded a second successive 71 to trail by five strokes. Yesterday the wind was so strong and the green was really hard that I can’t stop the ball with my wedges.
“I wish I could have been one or two shots better, but hopefully I will go out there on the back nine on Friday, where there are some chances, and get off to a good start”.
On his holed bunker shot for birdie at 18, Spieth’s 16th chip-in of the season, he added: “It’s arguably the best of the year given the position it was in”.
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“Today was pretty easy, I would have to say”, Johnson said. “Once I got those first couple of holes out of the way, I felt like I settled into the round really nicely”.
