‘Keep making the lead bigger’

Rory McIlroy backs US Open leader Kaymer to go beyong 10-under 130.

PINEHURST:

Rory McIlroy’s advice to Martin Kaymer about turning his record-low 36-hole score into a US Open title was simple: keep trying to make the lead bigger.

Germany’s Kaymer fired a five-under par 65 for the second day in a row Friday to stand on 10-under 130, breaking the old mark McIlroy set in 2011 by a shot.

Kaymer also matched the low 36-hole start in major history and his six-shot lead over American Brendon Todd after two rounds equalled the record US Open 36-hole leads of Tiger Woods in 2000 at Pebble Beach and McIlroy on his way to winning at Congressional in 2011.

McIlroy, whose 68 on Friday left him nine strokes off the pace with 36 holes to play, said his secret that year was to avoid defending his lead by trying to extend it.

“If I were Kaymer, hopefully I would be thinking about how to get seven ahead and then eight ahead and then nine ahead,” said McIlroy. “You can’t go out trying to protect anything. You’ve just got to keep the foot to the floor.”

McIlroy said Kaymer’s feat is more astounding than his own work at Congressional because his own effort came on a rain-softened layout while Kaymer has been overwhelming under more difficult conditions.

Behind Kaymer, only 12 players are under par and only three – Todd and fellow Americans Kevin Na and Brandt Snedeker – are within eight strokes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2014.

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