At The Players, Wyndham Clark leads by four shots at the halfway mark; Xander Schauffele and Nick Taylor tied for second; Rory McIlroy trails by eight after an unsatisfactory one-over 73; Watch The Players live on Sky Sports all weekend long.
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At TPC Sawgrass, Rory McIlroy’s chances of winning a second Players Championship title were dashed by a disorganized performance in the second round.
The world No. 2 recovered from a sluggish start to his PGA Tour career by splitting the early lead with Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele. However, after a wild one-over 73 on Friday, he lost eight strokes at the halfway point.
During a challenging round, McIlroy combined five birdies with four bogeys and a double bogey, finishing outside the top-10 as Clark took a four-shot lead with his second consecutive 65.
In an effort to address problems with his game before the weekend, McIlroy went straight to the range after the round, declining to talk with the media.
What did McIlroy do wrong?
At the beginning of his final round, McIlroy made a poor first drive and then found the sand on his way to an early bogey, just as Clark was closing in on a second consecutive 65 to set the clubhouse target.
In response, McIlroy fired his approach to tap-in range at the fourth and then made a 20-footer at the fifth. He had to navigate a frog ahead of his pitch from the rough at the par-three third. McIlroy two-putted from 30 feet to take advantage of the next par-five.
After missing the next greenside bunker by a considerable margin, McIlroy’s wild start continued. However, at the seventh hole, he made an amazing comeback from the pines to save a par, and at the ninth, he sank a birdie to reach the turn in 35.
Having missed birdie opportunities on the first two holes of his back nine, McIlroy scrambled a bogey on the 12th after hitting water off the tee. He then undid a 15-foot birdie at the 13th with an unsightly double-bogey on the following hole.
The Players champion of 2019 was on six under going into the weekend after having to settle for pars at the 15th and 16th and missing a birdie chance at the par-three 17th.
Radar: McIlroy suffered greatly from the wind.
“There was sufficient wind to cause chaos for McIlroy,” stated Wayne “Radar” Riley of Sky Sports, who was observing that group for live commentary during the round. It was like throwing darts when he shot that seven-under yesterday; that’s incredible playing. There was no wind.
There was a lot of wind today, so you had to maneuver through the photos. A few times, the arms continued to move while the body stopped, which worries me a little.
“It’s not the driver; he doesn’t do it with the driver, he doesn’t take it back in the ideal location, and then he drops one inside.” The rationale is that you can break that loop because he hits the driver so hard.”You’ll be exposed with your swing when you begin to play creatively in the wind, weave your magic, and start to chip shots in with little seven-irons when it’s really an eight-iron. This is especially true if you’re looping it on the inside and your hands have to catch it, which they usually don’t.”
Riley continued, “It’s one of those things where he needs to work on his distance control. To be honest, I watched McIlroy play poorly today, and it was definitely one of the worst days I’ve ever seen him play. The whole day was a struggle.”