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The Northern Irishman wasted two shots in the rough on the
par-four three, whacking his driver into the thick brush off the
green only to send the ball forward mere inches. He drained a
long putt to stem the pain, settling for a double-bogey.
"You don't want to try to be making 30-footers for 6s," said the
world number three.
"I stayed patient, and I knew I was going to give myself chances
if I just hit the ball the way I have been hitting it. Today was
a really good example of just having a good attitude."
A pair of bogeys and five birdies through the rest of the round
kept him in range of twice major winner Collin Morikawa (66),
who is tied at the top of the leaderboard with fellow American
Joel Dahmen (68).
"I knew I was going to have chances, so I didn't panic," he
said. "I didn't do anything stupid. I didn't force anything. I
was rewarded with that patience by playing a really good back
nine."
McIlroy finished the first two rounds tied with defending
champion Jon Rahm (67) and Americans Hayden Buckley (68), Aaron
Wise (68) and Beau Hossler (67), with Masters champion and world
number one Scottie Scheffler (67) on his heels, two strokes back
from the lead in a five-way tie for eighth.
"I certainly don't want it to be easy. I want guys to go out and
shoot 65 so I have to go and shoot 64," said McIlroy. "That's
competition, and that's at the heart of this game. I'm excited
to be in that mix going into the weekend."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
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