Rory McIlroy still believes he has “half a chance” of winning The Masters and completing the Grand Slam despite a birdie-less five-over 77 leaving him 10 shots of the halfway lead and his swing feeling “horrific” late in his second round.
The world No 2 carded three bogeys and a double bogey at a wind-ravaged Augusta National on Friday, dropping two shots at 11 as he found the water, to slip to four over in a tournament that Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa and Bryson DeChambeau lead on six under.
McIlroy said afterwards he was content just to make the cut – those at seven over or worse missed out on the weekend – but is refusing to rule out his hopes of securing a first major title since 2014.
The Northern Irishman said: “I still think I can go out tomorrow and shoot a low one, get back into red numbers, and have half a chance going into Sunday.
“I won from 10 back in Dubai at the start of the year. But obviously the Dubai Desert Classic and the Masters are two very different golf tournaments. We’ll see. My golf swing felt horrific for the last six or seven holes, just from hitting around. Especially that 11th hole. I felt like it took an hour to play that hole.”
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Rory: I tried to hang in there as best I could
McIlroy added: “It was stop and start, hard to get into a rhythm with the conditions and obviously how slow the play was as well. It was a tough day, a really tough day, hard to make a score.
“I felt like I did okay. Even to just to par the last four holes and get in the clubhouse and have a tee time tomorrow, I’m pretty happy with.
“Scoring was very difficult. Most of the field couldn’t really get anything going. It was just a matter of trying to hang in there as best you could. Mentally it’s a grind because you just have to try to commit as best you can to the shot that you’re trying to play.
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“One second you’ll have a shot that’s playing 150 yards, and then if the wind does something different, the shot could be playing 180. It could be a 30-yard difference.
“You have to commit to trying to play the right shot, but then you also have to hit it at the right time as well, so it’s pretty tricky.”
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Rahm: As hard a golf course as I’ve seen in a very long time
Defending champion Jon Rahm shot a four-over 76 to make the cut on five over and, like McIlroy, said he struggled with his swing.
“It’s a very bad day not to be comfortable with the swing, that’s for sure. I was fighting it all day, never comfortable,” said the Spaniard, looking to become the first back-to-back winner of The Masters since Tiger Woods.
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“I didn’t give myself a lot of chances, and it was a last ditch effort at the end to try and make the cut. Luckily I was successful in doing so. I’ve got a lot of work to do if I want to have a chance on Sunday.
On the gusty conditions, Rahm added: “A couple times I was questioning why we were out there, especially when I got to 18 and saw the whole front of the green just full of sand.
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“I understand they want us to finish [but] I can imagine they were very close to calling it a few times, especially when we were on the 11th green.
“We were getting those massive gusts every couple of minutes or so. It was extremely difficult. It’s about as hard a golf course as I’ve seen in a very long time.”
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