ORLANDO, FLORIDA (AP) – Rory McIlroy exhaled a sigh of relief as he walked off the golf course at Bay Hill Club and Lodge on Friday evening. He was relieved to be finished. He’d survived yet another cruel day at Arnie’s Place, shooting an even-par 72 to be within striking distance of the lead.
They weren’t the worst conditions he’d seen at the Arnold Palmer Invitational throughout the years. No, the fairways are still soft, and the weather is breezy but pleasant. The greens, on the other hand, are a very different story.
“Those are the greens you expect to see late on a Sunday, not late on a Friday,” McIlroy explained.
On Friday, McIlroy was rated 105th out of 120 players in strokes gained: putting. He needed 30 putts to get around, not including the 47-foot, 10-inch birdie roll from the edge on the par-4 eighth. The length of that conversion happened to be the same as McIlroy’s total length of putts in his second round.
His longest made putt was only 7 feet and 4 inches.”
“I like hitting into them because it’s a challenge,” McIlroy said of the greens. “Putting them on is a separate challenge because it becomes inconsistent.” On breaking putts, the ball may slide and not take the break, or it may roll early and take the break. When they get this glossy, it becomes a bit of a guessing game.”
McIlroy played the skid on the right-to-left comebacker after slicing a 30-foot birdie putt 5 feet past the cup on the par-4 15th hole, and it didn’t react the way he planned. McIlroy’s bogey was one of two in his final four holes. On the par-3 17th hole, he couldn’t get up and down from a tricky lie right outside the back bunker, missing an 8-footer for par. He had missed a birdie opportunity on the preceding hole from a similar distance.
As one can expect, McIlroy was not looking forward to thinking about how the putting surfaces will look on Sunday. Is it clear and firm? Yeah. Tricky? Without a doubt. Is it near-impossible? I sincerely hope not.
“It’ll be fascinating to see where they go from here,” McIlroy said, “but it’ll be a terrific challenge throughout the weekend.” “I’m delighted I got 18 holes in such conditions because the course has altered a lot from yesterday morning to this afternoon.” Tomorrow, I’ll be a little better prepared.”
When asked how he felt about Viktor Hovland’s 23 second-round putts, which left him two strokes ahead of McIlroy, McIlroy lashed back.
“We’ll see how he performs tomorrow.”
How about 22 by Tyrrell Hatton?
“We’ll see how he performs tomorrow.”
These greens aren’t getting any softer, and Bay Hill isn’t getting any easier.
