OVERNIGHT JOINT LEADER Rory McIlroy may have written himself out of competition for the US Open as early because the third gap of his second spherical at Brookline, however he produced a long-range putt to rescue a double-bogey six and subsequently held his nerve to shoot a 69 which retains him proper within the hunt for a fifth main title.
McIlroy’s one-under-par spherical leaves him solely a shot behind leaders Collin Morikawa and Joel Dahmen (the latter via 17 on the time of writing), tied with Jon Rahm, Aaron Smart, and the 259th-ranked Hayden Buckley on 4 beneath par heading into Saturday.
The Holywood native parred his opening couple of holes earlier than his newest main tilt virtually hit the skids on the par-four third. McIlroy hit a picture-perfect tee shot down the centre of the golf green just for his subsequent method to seek out the knee-high fescue extensive proper of the pin.
McIlroy took two swipes by means of the lengthy grass however scarcely moved his ball. With a 3rd effort, he lastly related correctly, chipping 23 ft past the opening.
Staring down the barrel of full disaster, he drained the long-range putt for what may solely be described as a double-bogey save. That he fist-bumped as he dropped to fifteenth on the leaderboard illustrated the significance of that individual conversion as he a minimum of escaped the third along with his sanity intact.
He moved again to 2 beneath par for the event on the fifth, tapping in for birdie after a tidy chip took him to inside inches of a two on the reachable par 4. He undid that good work with a bogey on the very subsequent gap.
McIlroy birdied once more on eight, bogeyed 10, however recovered once more with a birdies on 12 and 14.
And an basically regular spherical grew to become an excellent spherical when he sunk a clutch uphill putt for birdie on 17, taking him to inside a shot of Collin Morikawa who was about to par his closing gap.
Two-time main winner Morikawa fired a four-under-par 66 to grab the event lead, standing on five-under 135 after 36 holes on the Nation Membership.
Morikawa received final 12 months’s British Open and the 2020 PGA Championship and the 25-year-old American may develop into the primary participant to win three totally different majors since Tiger Woods.
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High-ranked Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, with an eagle and two birdies within the final six holes, was in a chasing pack on 137, a shot additional again than McIlroy, Rahm, Smart and Buckley.
Seamus Energy is one over for the event, six pictures off the lead after an even-par 70 on Friday. He’ll be again once more tomorrow however Shane Lowry, on 4 over by means of 36 holes, is ready to overlook out on the weekend by a shot.
– With reporting from AFP
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