Playing his fourth tournament in four weeks, McIlroy would always fight fatigue. He also has a cold and has said he is not comfortable with his street woods. Still, after an initial round of 62, it was still Friday, 5 under 11 holes and at the top 13 under.
Then everything went wrong.
McIlroy hooked his out-of-bounds shot at number 12. After a penalty and hitting three from the tee, he threw his next effort into the right fist, advancing his fourth shot into the green side bunker. , barely pulled his ball out of the sand, and it took three to get down from there by an 8.
It was the sixth quad of McIlroy’s career and the first since the 2021 PLAYERS Championship.
“You know, when you hit a starting shot like 12, the first, the second is pretty hard,” he said, “and you’re watching the left and I missed it well.”
He re-used a street wood in hole 15 of 271 yards, and this also caused problems. His starting shot rose up the slope of the pistachio-covered hill to the right of the green, and while he seemed to have avoided disaster when his second shot stopped just before the green, he threw his third on the green. green and towards the water. He grabbed a drop, made a chip, and made an 11-foot to save the double.
It was a strange sequence for one of the best players in the world, but McIlroy chose to focus on the positives: seven birdies, his good start to the round and the remaining 36 holes in the tournament.
“For whatever reason, I haven’t been comfortable with my street woods in the last two weeks,” he said. “You know, I just hit three loose ones there, two on 12, and then the one on 15. That was really it. I played well the rest of the way. Obviously, it had a great start.
“I thought I was fine,” he added. “I did a good 6-on-15 putt and then I did a 16-yard putt. Yes, I should be closer to the lead. I feel like I left a lot of guys in the golf tournament for that. But, you know, it’s still just two rounds. There are two rounds left and there is a lot of golf left. “