Scoring was significantly higher among the later starters, including McIlroy, as the world No 1 stuttered a 74 to slip to two over, while Jordan Spieth missed the cut for the second event running and Justin Rose also crashed out after missing a three-foot birdie putt at the last.
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The big story heading into Saturday’s second round at the Deutsche Bank Championship had nothing to do with the top of the leaderboard, though Charley Hoffman’s brilliant 63 leaves plenty to dissect and everything to do with Jordan Spieth.
Hoffman did lose steam last week at The Barclays, opening with a 69 and 71 before settling in with back-to-back rounds of 72, so an aggressive approach is going to serve him well with 36 holes left.
Northern Irish world number one Rory McIlroy, back on the PGA Tour after skipping The Barclays last week, got to three under before bogeying his last two holes for a 70.
“I don’t feel that it’s far off even though my score is far off”, Spieth said. “So keep playing some solid golf I’ll get there”.
Spieth missed the cut for a second straight tournament at six-over.
“I need to walk with some cockiness in my step these next two tournaments”.
Only the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings qualified for the Deutsche Bank Championship, and two players have withdrawn. “This is something I’ve never done that’s negative”.
“It’s one of those courses that sets up well, the visuals are good, and I tend to make a few more putts than average for me on these greens”.
“I made a good par save on three, a little sloppy bogey on eight but a nice birdie to finish the day off”.
“I hit a lot of good putts today that didn’t go in and that was probably to do with the speed”.
Just as brilliant play after the year’s major championships will be overly lauded in the short term, poor performances will be denounced too, perhaps a byproduct of the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately society which often doesn’t consider anything that happened more than three tweets ago. With three holes left, he was 4 shots clear of the cut line.
“And I’ll bring it when we get to Chicago”, he added.
The Ulsterman returned to Moscow for the M2M Russian Open, a tournament he won in 2013, and finished tied fourth with a final round 64 on 12 under par 272.
“To chip one in at such an important time meant so much and it shows that practice pays off eventually”.
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Scotland’s Russell Knox (65) scored seven birdies in a blistering round, leaving him tied for seventh with Sean O’Hair (67) and Henrik Stenson (68).
