Rory McIlroy is far from being out of contention at The Travelers and after recovering from a dismal week at Oakmont, the world number two is in a confident mood.
McIlroy had a nightmare at Oakmont both on and off the course as he seemed to let the off-course stuff bother him a lot before failing to produce when it mattered.
However, the Northern Irishman is now back in business and after turning up at The Travelers in a better mood, appears ready to contend again.
McIlroy actually carded a one over par for his round on the second day but he remains just four shy of the leaders.
One of the leading pack is Scottie Scheffler, and McIlroy has admitted that he used the world number one as a barometer for where his own game was heading.
Rory McIlroy makes comment about Scottie Scheffler after day two at The Travelers
With windy conditions playing such a big part in proceedings at The Travelers, a score of one over was never going to be too bad.
Indeed, for McIlroy, it’s something he’s happy with and talking about the conditions, he admitted that he did well to battle back.
“Yes, all of the above. I felt like I battled back pretty well. Got off to a rough start, 3-over through 4, 3-over through 7. To get it back somewhat close to even par for the day was good. Yeah, I battled well. I hit some good shots and held it together when it could have got away from me early in the round,” McIlroy said.
“The ball on 17, I was on the downslope in the bunker and I was afraid of hitting it fat and just hitting it straight into the water in front of me. I caught it a little skinny, and thankfully it skipped through, and I still made a bogey, but it probably saved me a shot by skipping out.
“It was a little fortunate, but it was a — 17, those holes — even 15 was playing sort of tricky, but 17 from that high tee box, it was a tough tee shot. You saw mine — I felt like the wind didn’t hit mine, goes in the left trap. Wind gets Keegan’s too much, goes in the water, and the wind was so gusty that sometimes the wind got the ball and sometimes it didn’t.”
McIlroy was then asked about his mindset as he was three over through four holes. However, he admitted he’d glanced at Scottie Scheffler’s scoring and had faith he was not far off.
“No, I got fortunate with my putt on 5 for par. It felt like that was going to miss left, and it ended up going in. Then I knew there was some gettable holes. Two par-5s, a couple of short par-4s. I sort of tried to stay as patient as possible,” The Masters winner added.
“When I dropped back to 3, I saw Scottie had got to 11. I was like, oh, felt like a long way to sort of climb my way back up. But then I made a birdie to get to 4 and I saw Scottie dropped back to 9 and I was like, oh, I don’t feel like I’m too far away again. The conditions today definitely bunched the entire field together, and should make for an exciting weekend.”
- READ MORE: Jason Day says what he really thinks of The Travelers Championship after shooting 66 in round two
A huge weekend ahead for Rory McIlroy
After coming in for so much criticism at the US Open and seemingly falling out of love with golf, it feels like McIlroy has had a bit of a reset and come back firing this week.
This feels like the Rory McIlroy we saw earlier in the year and right now, he’s well in contention.
Furthermore, this feels like a big weekend for McIlroy. Not only is he back in the mix to win and looking comfortable with his game, but he’s also appeared a lot happier.
After weeks of doing his best to tarnish a once spotless reputation, this is the Rory of old and it’s no surprise to see his mood correspond with performance.
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