Rory McIlroy pain game at Pebble Beach on day two

Thursday’s dramatic late-round collapse around Spyglass Hill to kick off his pursuit of success on the calendar’s opening PGA Tour event left the Northern Irishman sitting on 71 heading into the second round.

Having started yesterday eight strokes off leader Belgium’s Thomas Detry, McIlroy launched the Pebble Beach test with a bogey five.

Pars over holes two and three followed before a double bogey on four to sit three over for the day.

Another par arrived before back-to-back birdies pulled McIlroy back to one over.

However, hole eight featured another bogey and he closed out the front-nine with a par.

His back-nine push opened with two pars then another bogey to return to three over.

Pars across the 13th, 14th and 15th holes and a birdie on 16 from 43 feet cut McIlroy’s tally back to two over and he finished out the round on that same score thanks to two closing pars.

The 74 card for round two left McIlroy tied for 66th on one over having dropped down the pecking order by 27 positions.

Detry had finished his round on 11 under with a two-under score for the day and 70 card.

Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg was level with Detry on 11 under thanks to 68 and 65 across the first two days.

McIlroy kicked off his PGA Tour season bolstered by a win and runner-up placing across previous Dubai appearances in 2024.

On Thursday, McIlroy had been leading after 14 holes but dropped five strokes over the final four holes including a triple bogey after he fell foul of a rule change which cost him a two-shot penalty.

Having dropped within a club length of an unplayable lie, he was informed before signing his card for a final 71 of a change in the rules that a player must drop on the direct line.

“I wasn’t aware that that rule was changed again in 2023, so I took a drop thinking of the 2019 rules when everything was sort of changed,” said McIlroy on Thursday following his round.