Rory McIlroy experienced an unwelcome feeling of déjà vu after his putter misfired again in the second round of the Scottish Open. Defending champion McIlroy, playing his first tournament since agonizingly missing out on a fifth major title at the U.S. Open last month, shot a 65 in his first event at Renaissance Club and followed that up with a 66.
McIlroy briefly led by two shots with five holes remaining at Pinehurst but had three bogeys over his final four holes, including a missed par at 2 feet, 6 inches on No. 16 when he trailed Bligh. Bryson DeChambeau one shot.
Newsletter Promotion Post
The world No. 2 birdied the 16th hole from a similar distance on Friday and missed the next 9 feet for birdie, trailing his Ryder Cup teammate Ludwig A. Berg three shots.
“Yeah, I misread it. [on 16],” McIlroy said. “I read the putt straight away. I watched it go through the hole and it didn’t look like it was going to do much. Hit it straight, but it was a little left to right for me. It felt like I was on the par-3 14th and Another good opportunity was missed on the 17th hole.
“I’m probably standing here feeling like I should be around where my scores have been over the past few days, if not a little bit better, but I’m still in a good spot. I felt like I left two or three yesterday and today was pretty similar, so Hopefully I can put it all together over the weekend.
“I saw a 62 and a couple of 63s today and if we get more conditions like this, we’re going to need results like this going into Sunday. It’s another weekend and I’m playing in a golf tournament and after the last three weeks, This is a great location.
