Rory McIlroy rides rocky road but stays in US Open hunt behind Åberg

Rory McIlroy remained in the picture for a drought-shattering fifth major title after experiencing multiple moments of crisis as the 124th match of the US Open reached the halfway mark amid oppressive North Carolina heat on Friday.

The in-form Northern Irishman scored an eventful 72 after Thursday’s five-under par 65, leaving him two shots off the pace of Swede Ludvig Åberg, the 23-year-old Masters runner-up in his third career appearance at one of the golf courses four basic tournaments.

McIlroy left the 10th tee at 7.29am in pleasant conditions of 68F (20C) alongside Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, a large group of the three best players in the world. After bogeys on two of his first six holes, he suffered catastrophe on the 17th when a birdie putt drifted all the way from the glassy domed green into the staging area. But the world number 3 managed to bet from six yards out, leaping with his fists at the roaring crowd and building confidence from there.

McIlroy played the sensible, conservative golf that modern US Open setups require, deftly negotiating the devilish Pinehurst No. 2 greens. off the pace and firmly in contention for a first major crown in almost a decade.

“Obviously it didn’t go as well as yesterday, but I feel like the golf course played a little harder even though we were off in the morning,” said McIlroy, whose last major win was at the 2014 US PGA when it was staged in August. “Some of the hole locations were definitely a little bit more difficult. I had to be a little on your guard. I delayed a green there on 17th. “Overall, I felt like I did a pretty good job of keeping some mistakes off the scorecard.

What is billed as professional golf’s toughest test has lived up to the hype with just 16 players on the course breaking par through 36 holes. The already intimidating greens on the 7,540-yard course played even firmer and faster on Friday as temperatures approached 38 degrees Celsius, prompting extreme weather warnings across the property.

The field of 156 had been whittled down to the top 60 players at a tie by sunset, almost leaving out Scheffler, who had been the biggest betting favorite at a major for fifteen years but was undone by a scattershot ball strike and one missed chance then. another on the turtle greens. The world number 1 failed to record a single birdie for the first time in 169 rounds, but narrowly avoided missing a cut for the first time in 22 months. “This golf course can be unpredictable at times, and maybe it’s gotten the better of me the last few days,” he said.

Things didn’t go much smoother for Schauffele, who eventually shook off the title of best player never to win a major at the U.S. PGA Championship last month. The 30-year-old Californian used deft iron play to move up the board with five birdies in a nine-hole stretch, but a pair of late bogeys dropped him into an eight-to-one pack that included England’s Tyrrell Hatton.

Bryson DeChambeau, one of only a dozen players from the rebellious LIV Golf Series in the field, made good on his promise to trade his familiar bomb-and-gouge style for a more patient wave that he described as “boring” – even though his wild ride of a second round (five birdies and four bogeys) was anything but. The 2020 champion finished with a one-under 69, leaving him four under the overall standings alongside Thomas Detry and Patrick Cantlay, who had shared the lead overnight with McIlroy.

But the surprise was Åberg, the first player to hold at least a share of the 36-hole lead in his US Open debut since TC Chen in 1985. Frenchman Matthieu Pavon looked on course to join him at the top of the leaderboard but two late bogeys saw him slip back to fifth with McIlroy and Tony Finau.

It’s been 13 years since McIlroy, then 22, became the youngest US Open champion since Bobby Jones in 1923. He won his first major title by eight shots, posting the lowest 72-hole score in the tournament’s history with a score of 16 under. -par 268. Oddly enough, Cantlay was the low amateur at the Congressional that year and they shared the podium at the trophy presentation.

McIlroy has posted a top 10 in his past five U.S. Open appearances since his third consecutive appearance in 2018, each time finishing better than the last, including last year when he fell one shot behind Wyndham Clark at Los Angeles Country Club. He has attributed an incremental reversal of form to a “come-to-Jesus moment” in his approach to the USGA’s famously tireless format. Should the trend line continue and McIlroy lift the trophy on Sunday, the thirteen years between US Open victories would break the existing record held by Hale Irwin, who won the 1979 and 1990 titles after his first victory in 1974. waited.

Tiger Woods, playing in only his fourth event of the year, signed for a three-over 73 and missed the cut at seven-over. Others whose tournament ended after two rounds included world No. 5 Viktor Hovland, Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson and former US Open champions Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson and Justin Rose.

Francesco Molinari seemed destined to join them, teeing off at the 18th at seven over par, but incredibly the Italian hit a hole-in-one to make the cut in dramatic fashion.