Rory McIlroy believes he is "right in the tournament" after a stellar second round brought him within five strokes of the halfway lead at the US PGA Championship. The Northern Irishman was left frustrated following a four-over-par opening round, which jeopardised his quest for back-to-back major titles.
Beginning his second round at Aronimink Golf Club in southwest Philadelphia eight shots adrift of the clubhouse lead, McIlroy carded a bogey-free 67 to move to five back from Americans Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy. Only Chris Gotterup (65) and Ludvig Aberg (66) have posted lower scores over the first two days.
The leaderboard is tightly packed, with 15 players within two shots of the midway lead—only the third time this has occurred in major championship history. McIlroy described his opening round as "s***" and, when asked to characterise his second, replied: "Less s***."
"At five back I do feel like I'm right in the tournament, and that's really what I wanted to do today—just get myself back in it," McIlroy said. "I think this afternoon I had a better understanding of how the course was playing. I probably went out there yesterday being a little too aggressive, thinking that guys were going to go lower than they were. Because I certainly didn't, in the practice rounds, see it playing as difficult as it has played."
The slow pace of play was typical for a major championship, with McIlroy's group taking over five hours to complete the round. He sat down on the 10th tee while waiting to play. "It seems like the first two days of major championship golf are always going to be like that," he added.
Aronimink has proven a stern test, contradicting pre-tournament suggestions that it would not challenge the world's elite. World number one Scottie Scheffler, who battled to a second-round 71 to sit two off the lead, called the pin positions "the hardest I have seen on tour."
McIlroy expressed mixed feelings about the course setup, questioning the congested leaderboard. "I think a bunched leaderboard like this is a sign of not a great setup," he said. "It hasn't really enabled anyone to separate themselves. It's easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and it feels like bogey's the worst score you're going to shoot on any one hole."
He added: "I think the setup is fine, the golf course is good, the pins were tough. I've always felt like really good setups start to spread the field a bit, and not great setups sort of bring everyone together. Where they have put these hole locations, I feel like they have really tried to protect the course the first couple of days. So it seems like they have used up a lot of the really hard ones."
