Resilient McIlroy digs deep at Bay Hill; Harrington addresses "crass" Azinger comments
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy produced a fighting finish to keep Ryder Cup teammate Tyrrell Hatton in his crosshairs in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
The world No 1 started his day with the lead after overnight leader Matt Every followed his opening 65 with an 83 to crash to four-over.
But firm greens, thick rough and a capricious breeze made Bay Hill a major-style test and McIlroy had to battle hard to card a one-over-par 73 that left him tied for fourth, just two shots behind Hatton and South Korea's Sung Kang on five-under.
Hatton shot a three-under 69 and Kang a 68 to lead by a shot on seven-under from New Zealand's Danny Lee, who carded a best-of-the-day 67.
The conditions made keeping pace a challenge for the Holywood star, who bogeyed the short third and followed a birdie four at the sixth by dropping three shots in his next two holes.
After three-putting the seventh from long-range, he double-bogeyed the eighth after taking three shots to escape heavy rough right of the fairway.
”Yeah, the second one was lying a bit better, so I thought I could do it,” McIlroy said of the eighth, where he moved his first attempt to escape the right rough just a few yards.
“Honestly, the decision off the tee was what I was most annoyed about. I should have hit 5-wood just right at the middle of the bunker. I was trying to thread a 3-wood sort of in between the edge of the bunker and the right rough and trying to get myself down there so I had a shorter shot in.
“And I just tried to sort of take more on with the tee shot and put myself in a really bad spot and compounded that error with a couple other ones. So a couple bad decisions, but bounced back with a birdie on 9 and then played a good back nine.”
But he showed some resilience around the turn, birdied the ninth and 12th to remain in touch, then gathered himself after missed two putts inside six feet.
After failing with a four-footer for par at the 15th, he was frustrated to miss a six-footer for birdie the par-five 16th but then drained a 20 footer for a two at the 17th.
He had to scramble for par at the 18th, flirting with the water before chipping close to save par as he failed to break par for just the fourth time in 22 competitive rounds on the PGA Tour this season.
“It was a different day,” he said. “The conditions were a lot tougher than we got them yesterday morning. A lot of crosswinds. And then if you did miss fairways it's really tough with how firm these greens are to get it anywhere close.
“I had my chances. I made a couple unforced errors on the 7th and the 8th holes, but felt like I bounced back well after that. Birdied 9 and then played the last 10 holes in 2-under par to keep myself in the tournament. So obviously still a lot of golf left.
“The conditions are tough and I expect them to be tough for the rest of the weekend and just got to sort of, it's going to be one of those tournaments where you just have to hang in there and hang around and take your chances when they present themselves.”
Pleased with his resilience and that late birdie at the 17th, he added: "I just showed a little bit of patience, and it was nice to see one drop, finally.
"It was one of those days just to hang in there, stay tough and as patient as possible. I had ambitions of going out there and getting to double-digits under par and having a lead, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out that way.
"The course is tough, and I feel the conditions are going to be pretty similar of the next couple of days so if I can get to double-digits under par with a couple of scores in the sixties over the weekend, I shouldn't be far away.
“I feel very fortunate that I got this end of the draw. I took advantage of the benign conditions yesterday and was able to post a low one. So, yeah, I feel fortunate that my side of the draw was maybe a shot or two easier, so it gets me into the thick of things over the weekend.
“But everyone starts on a level playing field again starting tomorrow, and as I said, the later you go out, the tougher the conditions are and the firmer and faster the greens get. So just got to try to keep you wits about you.”
The Holywood star heads to Sawgrass next week to defend The Players Championship but Tiger Woods will not be there as he nurses a sore back.
"Back just not ready," Woods' agent Mark Steinberg told ESPN. "Not concerning long term, just not ready."
Graeme McDowell suffered on his back nine in tough morning conditions, carding a two-over 74 that left him just five shots behind.
The 2010 US Open winner turned in one-under after following a bogey at the 12th with birdies at the par-three 14th and the par-five 16th.
“The comments themselves were pretty crass. They weren’t well put as points. It didn’t come across very well. It’s not like all good Americans have won in Europe or around the world.”
But he limped home in 39 on the tough front nine, dropping three shots in a row from the second before following a birdie four at the sixth with another bogey at the eighth.
Pádraig Harrington's hopes making his first PGA Tour cut for ten months evaporated when he drove out of bounds and made a triple-bogey seven at the first.
He would go on to hit just one green in regulation, eventually carding a seven-over 79 to finish well off the pace on nine-over.
The European Ryder Cup captain has one eye on September, and he had no problem describing recent comments by former US captain Paul Azinger as "pretty crass".
Azinger irked a host of European stars by referring to the European circuit as "that European Tour" when explaining that Tommy Fleetwood needed to win on the PGA Tour to prove himself.
"The comments themselves were pretty crass," Harrington told the BBC. "They weren't well put as points. It didn't come across very well. It's not like all good Americans have won in Europe or around the world."
Andy Sullivan. Picture: Getty Images
On the European Tour, Spain's Jorge Campillo and England's Andy Sullivan shot six-under 66s to hit the front in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
They led by a shot on 10-under-par from England's Oliver Fisher, Frenchman Romain Langasque, The Netherlands' Joost Luiten and Swedes Marcus Kinhult and Alexander Björk, who fired a career-low, nine-under 63.
"I've got it under lock at the moment," said 2016 Ryder Cup player Sullivan (32), who is winless since he triumphed three times in Europe in 2015.
"I feel like I have grown up a little bit now on the golf course.”
Ardglass's Cormac Sharvin made the two-under-par cut with one stroke to spare after making six birdies in a two-under 70.
He was tied for 48th on two-under-par, but fellow Ulsterman Jonathan Caldwell (35) missed his first halfway cut since winning his card at the Qualifying School.
The Clandeboye man birdied four of his first seven holes but bogeyed the ninth and 12th and signed for a 69 that left him two strokes outside the cut mark on one-over.
Paris-based amateur Michael Young also missed the cut on his European Tour debut, adding a 76 to his opening 78 to finish on 12-over.
