McIlroy out of sorts at British Open

World number two insists he’s still in the running.

LYTHAM:

Rory McIlroy all but blew away his chances of a first British Open victory in Friday’s second round, but insisted he could still make up enough lost ground at the weekend to win a second major.

The 23-year-old Ulsterman was out of sorts all day at a damp and cold Royal Lytham, firing three bogeys and one double bogey against two birdies to come in with a five-over par 75. That left him at two over for the tournament and just under the projected line for the cut.

“It wasn’t the best day out there,” he agreed. “I was doing pretty well just to hang in there around par on the front nine. And making a double on the ninth there was sort of the turning point in the round and I couldn’t really recover from that.”

McIlroy had a couple of birdie chances in the finishing stretch, but this time it was his putter that let him down as he came off trailing leader Brandt Snedeker, who was still on the course, by 12 strokes at that stage. Still the world number two said that he was not out of it yet.

“Obviously Snedeker is a little bit ahead at the minute, but I feel like if I can maybe get it back to where I was at the start of the day today, somewhere around there, three, four under going into Sunday, I think I’d still have a great chance.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2012.