The wind, gusting to 30 miles per hour as the round progressed, wreaked havoc for some; but not for everyone. And, certainly, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington – for whom shot-making in such conditions was part of their golfing education – managed conditions well to stay within touching distance of the business part of the leaderboard in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida.
As Kurt Kitayama, an American who cut his teeth on the European circuit before progressing on to the PGA Tour, added a second round 68 to his opening 67 to assume the midway clubhouse lead on nine-under-par 135, the scorecards submitted by the Irish trio were each satisfying.
In tough, windy conditions, McIlroy’s 69 and Lowry’s 70 – to enable them to reach the midpoint on two-under 142 – and Harrington’s 70 (for 143) ensured all would survive the cut mark and head on into the weekend with ambitions to move into contention.
McIlroy leapfrogged his way up the leaderboard with a 69 that featured four birdies and a lone bogey in a round that was much more controlled than his opening effort of 73. Where he’d found only eight of 18 greens in that first round, he improved to 11 of 18 in a second round played in far more difficult conditions.
A sequence of six straight pars ensured McIlroy got off to a steady start and then back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th holes – from three and 12 feet respectively – got the world number three some momentum only for a bogey on the 18th to see him turn in 35 strokes.
On his homeward run, McIlroy plotted a true course and birdied each of the two par-fives, the fourth and sixth, to record his 69 that saw him improve into the top-25. That sixth hole had caused carnage for some, with Justin Rose putting two drives into the water before finding the fairway with his fifth shot in running up a triple-bogey eight, while overnight leader Jon Rahm also came undone there in recording a double-bogey seven.
“It was just a day to hang in there and grind and get up-and-down and try to take advantage of some of the chances that you give yourself,” said McIlroy, who had worked on his iron play late on the range on Thursday night in righting that element of his game. “I knew that today was going to be tough. I didn’t feel like I needed to go super deep to get myself back into it. It was nice to not really feel that pressure.”
Lowry, for his part, had an eagle, two birdies and two bogeys in his 70 for 142 that ensured he made the cut at Arnie’s place at the fifth time of asking. The highlight of Lowry’s round was an eagle three on the par-five fourth hole where he chipped in from greenside rough.
Harrington, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, improved by three strokes on his opening 73 to sign for a 70 that moved him safely inside the cut line. The Dubliner had five birdies and three bogeys on his card, as he navigated his front nine in 33 strokes – with birdies on the 12th, 15th and 18th holes – before suffering his first dropped shot after the turn on the first. He managed two further birdies on the third and fifth before dropping shots on the seventh (where he three-putted from 45 feet) and the eighth (where he drove into the rough and could only pitch back out to the fairway).
World number one Rahm, meanwhile, struggled in the conditions and signed for a 76 – 11 shots worse than his opening 65 – to be on 141.
