Rory McIlroy must turn back the clock and recreate his teenage round to chase Open glory at Portrush
The deluge that had been promised all day finally fell upon Rory McIlroy as he walked down the 18th fairway at the end of his second round .
An army of umbrellas in the stands greeted him on the green, and when he had completed a two-under-par round of 69, mist got in his eyes.
When he talked about a day's play that had moved him to the lower reaches of the leaderboard and kept him on the fringes of contention for a shot at the Open , his thoughts wandered back to 20 years ago last week when he played the North of Ireland Amateur Open here at Royal Portrush.
McIlroy did not win the tournament that year. In fact, he lost 4&3 in the third round to Andrew Pitcher, from the Island Golf Club, just north of Dublin.
But earlier in the week, a 16-year-old McIlroy played himself into legend. In one of two qualifying rounds for the North of Ireland, McIlroy shattered the course record with a brilliant 11-under-par 61 that included nine birdies and an eagle.
Contemporaneous reports of the day recall The word was going around that he was on the charge. "McIlroy's got it going here," people were saying. "You need to see this."
McIlroy mentioned that round on Friday when he was asked about the emotion of playing in front of his home fans and avoiding the humiliation of missing the cut, the fate that happened to him the last time the Open was held here in 2019.
This time, he is very much looking forward to the weekend.
Six years ago, I feel like I let myself down more than I let the fans down," McIlroy said. "It was a hard pill to swallow. This time, I've just gotten better. I know what I need to do to get the best out of myself in an environment like this.
I've been somewhat close to my best over the first two days in little bits here and there. I'm going to need to have it all under control and have it all firing over the weekend to make a run.
It's incredible to play in front of these fans. It's 20 years ago that I played in the North of Ireland here, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be coming back as a Grand Slam champion, with the support of a nation behind me, trying to win an Open.
I count myself very grateful and very lucky that I'm in this position and I'm excited for the weekend.
McIlroy may not need to shoot a 61 today to put himself in contention for what would be his second Open victory and a sixth major, equaling the record set by Sir Nick Faldo, the most successful European golfer in history — but he will have to come close.
He will certainly need to go considerably lower than he has done so far on this spectacularly beautiful course on the Antrim coast, after he ended the day seven shots behind the lead set by world number one Scottie Scheffler.
If the Northern Irishman, still celebrating his win at the Masters in April, is going to make a move, it is now or never.
McIlroy played better than he had on Thursday and even birdied the first hole that caused him so much anguish in 2019, when he carded a quadruple bogey eight there and destroyed any chance he had of winning the tournament before he had even begun.
But he was still troubled by a series of wild drives, especially on the front nine.
No sooner had he birdied the first hole than he sliced his tee shot on the par-five second into deep rough, so far to the right of the fairway that it was almost out of bounds.
In the end the ball was found, but it was deemed unplayable and McIlroy took a drop. Only sheer brilliance allowed him to save par.
He bogeyed the third, but then birdied the fourth before bogeying the fifth after finding a bunker near a knoll at the front of the green as the North Atlantic loomed behind it. It seems to be the McIlroy template — wild mixed with sublime. It is part of what makes him such an enthralling player to follow.
On the back nine, he stabilized. On Thursday, he only hit two fairways out of 14. On Friday he hit four fairways on the back nine alone.
On the 12th, he hit a monster 380-yard drive and left himself with a 30-foot putt for eagle. It flirted with the hole but would not drop, and McIlroy leaned so heavily on his putter in frustration that his torso was perpendicular to his legs. He tapped in a birdie.
Another huge drive down the center of the 14th paved the way for another birdie that took him to three under and within a couple of shots of the lead, but McIlroy could not keep the momentum going.
He avoided calamity on Calamity, the forbidding 16th hole where a cliff of green vegetation falls away to the right of the green, but he missed birdie chances there and on the 17th, where he pushed a 12ft birdie putt just left. Then the deluge came.
"I'm excited for the opportunity," McIlroy said about the chance to close the gap on the leaders in the two days that remain.
I didn't have this opportunity six years ago, so to play an extra two days in this atmosphere in front of these crowds, I'm very excited for that.
I feel like my game's definitely good enough to make a run. I don't know if you can ever flow around here.
This golf course is very demanding. It's quite visually intimidating off the tee. You know the holes you have to make par, you know the holes you have to make birdie. If you have one of those out of the blue days and you can get it going…
McIlroy conjured one of those days 20 years ago. Now, he is 36 years old and there is some grey in his hair, and he needs to conjure another one.
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