Rory McIlroy proves ‘patient’ around Memorial test - with approach 'important' to progress
Rory McIlroy highlighted his ‘patient’ approach to difficult conditions around Muirfield following a second-round 71 to sit six shots off the Memorial Tournament top spot.
The Northern Ireland favourite followed up his opening 70 with a mixed tally on Friday towards his one-under round that left McIlroy on three-under overall – with Scottie Scheffler clear on nine-under at the head of the leaderboard.
Adam Hadwin and Viktor Hovland were next in line, sharing second on six-under apiece.
McIlroy opened with a birdie then, over holes four and five, posted a bogey and birdie run.
He closed out his front nine with a bogey then clocked a birdie on 11.
Another bogey followed on 12 and his final highlight came on the 14th with a birdie.
He counted 11 pars over the round as a positive, however, in his closing analysis.
“Yeah, really tricky,” said McIlroy following play. “Wind is just, yeah, this course is penal enough anyway, just, if you miss it in the wrong spots.
"Thankfully with the rain on Wednesday the course is still pretty receptive.
"You get this wind and if it was as fiery as it has been in previous years it would be treacherous, but it's still, the ball's holding on the greens and on the fairways and you still have opportunities to make birdie.
"Anything under par I think is a good score, but, yeah, very hard to go low.”
He added, on the weather: “It was pretty gusty…I mean, it was gusty, it was coming out of the same direction always, but it would lay down a little bit, then it would get up.
"Hard to sometimes commit to a club and commit to a shot at times.
"I think with windy conditions and on a golf course like this it's, a lot of it is to do with timing, making sure you hit the shot at the right time so you get the wind that you want.”
In terms of plus signs, McIlroy said: “Scrambled well. Made a ton of pars. Stayed patient.
"I made a couple of bogeys after making birdies and, yeah, just stayed as patient as I could, which was important.”
He also highlighted his short game as a bonus.
“Putting especially has been really good,” he said. “Chipping has been, it's sort of been a mixed bag for most of the year.
"The good weeks are really good, but the bad weeks are...actually, I didn't feel like I chipped particularly well today, there was a couple other shots that were good.
"But, yeah, I've been scrambling well and I think in conditions like this you need to do that.”
McIlroy will embark on his latest major bid next week at Pinehurst for the US Open.
And, when asked about the expectation of firm and fast play for the third major of the season he described the appeal.
“I said this yesterday, but after The Open Championship in 2019 it had sort of like a disappointing run in the toughest tests and in the majors, and I sort of just tried to change my mindset,” he said around the challenge. “I remember writing in the sort of little golf journal that I keep about trying to build my game to suit the toughest venues that we go to.
"If you look at my results in the US Open and some of the toughest tests from then until now I would say the US Open's arguably been my best major championship in the last few years.”