McIlroy Stays in Riviera Hunt

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Rory McIlroy carded a roller-coaster 69 in the second round of the Northern Trust Open on Friday to sit just four shots off the lead going into the weekend.

Four-times major champion McIlroy, who opened with a 67 on his first PGA Tour start of the year, produced sharply contrasting nines as he mixed five birdies with three bogeys to move up the leaderboard.

"I played the front nine very well, very solid, at three-under par," said McIlroy. "The back nine was a little scrappy.

"A bogey from the middle of the fairway at 13 and then to three-putt 15 ... two unforced errors there. I can't make those going into the weekend if I want to have a chance to win."

Journeyman Jason Kokrak, best known for his power hitting, moved one shot clear after the second round in California as world number one Jordan Spieth missed the cut.

American Kokrak, whose best PGA Tour finish was a tie for second at the 2012 Frys.com Open, charged to the top of the leaderboard with a sparkling seven-under-par 64 on a sun-splashed day at Riviera Country Club.

The 30-year-old racked up eight birdies, including five in his last nine holes, and a lone bogey to post a 10-under total of 132, ending the day a stroke in front of compatriot Chez Reavie.

However, several big names were in close pursuit, including nine-times PGA Tour winner Dustin Johnson, twice Masters champion Bubba Watson and world number three McIlroy.

"You definitely can call upon past experiences," Kokrak, a double winner on the satellite Web.com Tour, told reporters. "I've put myself in that position enough times that I can go out there, stick to my game plan and just hit golf shots.

"I've putted it really well the last four or five rounds out here on tour. That's the biggest key for me. If I putt well, I'm always kind of close to the top-10, top-20."

Watson, who won the 2014 Northern Trust Open and has always relished playing Riviera, made only three birdies on Friday, and would love to see more putts drop over the weekend.

"It was just one of those days, they (putts) just didn't go in," said Watson. "Yesterday all of them went in.

"But the short putts is what I liked today. I didn't miss any inside five feet. And I didn't make any bogeys, so that would be pretty good over the weekend."

The cut fell at level-par 142 with Masters and US Open champion Spieth the biggest name to miss out after adding a 68 to his shocking opening round of 79.

"I can certainly take positives out of today's round," Spieth said after mixing eight birdies with five bogeys. "I'm not going to let this one get to me very much."

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McIlroy and Harrington in Northern Trust

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Rory McIlroy carded a round of 67 in his opening round of the US PGA Tour 2016 at the Northern Trust Open and remains four shots behind the clubhouse leader Camilo Villegas - after play was suspended due to bad light.

McIlroy had arrived on the west coast after working on his game at his Florida base during a week off and he enjoyed a good on the chilly Riviera Country Club in Pacfic Pallisades.

An opening tee shot at the 315-yard short par-four 10th left McIlroy with a tricky pitch from 30 yards, but he would turn it into the first birdie of the day by holing the putt from seven feet.

McIlroy admitted to working on his putting after his spell in the United Arab Emirates and he soon got the measure of the small and tricky Riviera surfaces, almost making an outrageous 73-foot eagle putt on the second before tapping in for a second birdie.

McIlroy was very close to making it three on the the spin at the 12th, made a good par save on the 13th and saw his ball horseshoe out from 25 feet for birdie on the 14th.

Riviera’s fairway bunkers usually exact a toll and McIlroy would drop his only shot of the round after finding the steep face of one on the right of the 15th, forcing him to come up short of the green in three as he carded a bogey five.

Two pars followed before a brilliant wedge to nine feet on the par-five 17th set up a third birdie of the round as he turned in two-under 34.

McIlroy made it a clean sweep of the par fives with a birdie on the first before a run of five pars. Another stunning approach, this time to inside three feet on the par-four seventh, brought a fifth birdie.

Unlucky to just miss out on another gain on the eighth, McIlroy holed a tricky short putt for par on the 18th to compete a fine opening round in the event.

Chez Reavie and Luke List both recorded bogey-free five-under 66s to share the lead with Bubba Watson, who carded seven birdies and two bogeys in his round. McIlroy had company on four under from American Ricky Barnes, Charles Howell III and amateur Charlie Danielson.

Pádraig Harrington was also among the early starters at Riviera, the three-time Major champion trading off two birdies against two bogeys in a level-par 71.

Charl Schwartzel showed no signs of any jetlag or effects of last week’s victory at the Tshwane Open in his native South Africa as he opened with a three-under 68. He was joined on that mark by the Americans Billy Horschel, Jason Kokrak and Harris English, Argentine veteran Angel Cabrera, South Africa’s Retief Goosen and American-based Scot Martin Laird .

England’s Justin Rose was a shot further back on two under, a mark also shared by McIlroy’s playing partners Matsuyama and Kuchar.

McIlroy was delighted to play well in his first competitive round at Riviera, which is consistently ranked by players as one of the top courses on the PGA Tour.

“Put myself out of position a couple of times but the way the conditions of the golf course were, it didn’t punish you as bad as if it would have been as firm as it was the last couple of days,” he said.

“I felt like my pace on the greens was good . . . and I lag-putted well. All of the things that you need to do around this golf course, I did pretty well today.”

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McIlroy Seeks Tiger Pointers

Rory McIlroy has "picked the brains" of Tiger Woods over the ankle injury which has prevented him defending his Open title.

McIlroy suffered a ruptured ankle ligament while playing football with friends last Saturday and told Woods about it the same day, although the world No 1 waited until Monday to release the news on Instagram.

"He sent me a photo the day he did it," Woods told ESPN.com after practising at the Old Course on Saturday. "We talked about it for a little bit.

"He said, 'You've been through a lot of injuries over the years.' So he picked my brain a little bit. We had a good talk. He's doing the right thing, taking care of his body first before he gets back out here. 

"No doubt he's frustrated that he's not going to be able to play in the Open Championship, especially here at St Andrews, and how well he's been playing of late, and this golf course really does set up well for him.

"That's the way it goes. We all get injured at one point in time. Sometimes it's through the sport or sometimes it's through fun activities. You just never know."

Woods arrived in Scotland on Saturday morning and admitted he was surprised by the condition of the course where he won the 2000 Open by eight shots and the 2005 Open by five.

"I was shocked," Woods added. "I had seen photos of it a month ago. It was bone dry. It looked like it was going to be one of those dust bowls again; hard, fast, like the years I've played St Andrews. It's changed. They got big rain and a lot of sun.

Former world No 1 Woods is currently ranked 226th after a nightmare season which has featured career-worst scores on the PGA Tour and in the US Open and a best finish of tied 17th in the Masters.

However, the 14-time major winner did card three sub-par rounds to finish joint 32nd in the Greenbrier Classic in his last start, including a bogey-free closing 67.

"I feel good," the 39-year-old added: "Sunday at Greenbrier is probably the best I hit it in two years. That was fun. It sounds crazy when I told everyone at Greenbrier that I felt close, after the scores I shot at the Memorial (85) and the US Open (80).

"I put it together at Greenbrier and hit it really good. [Instructor] Chris [Como] told me it was the first time I led the field in proximity to the hole with my iron game."

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McIlroy Opens Masters with 71

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Rory McIlroy made a low-key start to the Masters with a one-under-par opening round of 71.

The 25-year-old from Northern Ireland is hoping, this week, to join a select band of five golfers to have won each of the four major titles.

Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus achieved this feat before the 1970s, while Tiger Woods is the only pro to have completed all four triumphs during the last 48 years.

On day one at Augusta National, McIlroy mixed three birdies with a brace of bogeys but was not too downhearted at the end of his first circuit.

Speaking to Sky Sports analyst Tim Barter, McIlroy said: “It was OK. A solid start, could have been better but could have been worse as well.

“Put myself in some awkward positions on a few holes but I battled well and held it together.

“Made some nice putts, got some good up and downs, birdied the par fives on the back nine and one-under was a decent score.”

Asked how he felt teeing-up earlier in the day, he added: “A little nervous, very excited, just telling myself to stay as patient as possible because four days around here is a long time.

“You don’t want to get off to an anxious start and press too early. I kept making pars and was quite happy with that.

“I was conservative on the par fives but drove into the hazard on the first one at the second, which wasn’t the plan but still made a great par there.

“Then at the next par five – the eighth – put myself out of position and took my medicine and made par.

“So playing the four par-fives in two under wasn’t so bad in the end.”

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McIlroy Not Yet Woods - McGinley

Paul McGinley believes Rory McIlroy has a long way to go before he deserves to be compared to Tiger Woods.

The two players head to Augusta for the Masters in starkly contrasting form, with McIlroy needing to win a first green jacket to complete the career grand slam and Woods having only confirmed his participation in the year's first major championship on Friday.

Woods has started just two events in 2015, shooting a career-worst score of 82 to miss the cut in the first of them and withdrawing through injury after just 11 holes of the second.

However, McGinley experienced first hand how much Woods dominated the game in the early part of his career to amass 14 major titles, including the 'Tiger Slam' of US Open, Open Championship and US PGA in 2000, as well as the 2001 Masters to hold all four major titles at once.

"Rory is evolving as a player and he's evolving as a person too. He's not the finished article," McGinley said. "Even now at 25 it's not right to compare him to Tiger Woods.

"What Tiger Woods has done in his career is a yardstick. Rory is still evolving towards that and every year he is getting better and better, but he still has a long way to go to meet the standards that Tiger set.

"Also, the great thing about Tiger was the way and the varying conditions that he won in. You see him win at Augusta obviously, but you see him winning at the Open in Hoylake (in 2006), on a firm, bouncy golf course. He showed two disciplines there; he showed massive ball control, b ut secondly to be able to play an examination paper like Hoylake, it's all about patience. And he exemplified that there.

"A nd that's one of the things that Rory knows he has to improve, that level of patience, if he wants to evolve to the heights that Tiger set."

McIlroy's lack of patience got the better of him when he threw his three iron into a lake at Doral following a poor shot in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March, with the pressure of Augusta perhaps already beginning to tell.

The world number one is well aware he is on the verge of joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods in an exclusive club by winning all four majors, but McGinley believes he does have one thing in his favour.

"What's been clever about what Rory's done is that he hasn't put a number on the number of majors he wants to win," added McGinley, who will be at the Masters in Augusta commentating for Sky Sports, the only place to watch all four days live. " He's not chasing anybody's record. And that's been very clever.

"To a large extent I wonder if that has hindered Tiger more than anything else, because everyone is relating him to Jack Nicklaus (Nicklaus has 18 majors, Woods 14). And if he doesn't reach Jack Nicklaus' level then some people will say, 'Well he didn't get quite as good as Nicklaus.'

"And that would be a shame considering the career Tiger has had. Rory hasn't done that, he's just said I'm going to keep on playing and whatever number of titles I end up with at the end of my career, I end up with."

Almost forgotten amongst the focus on winning the career grand slam is that McIlroy is also aiming to win his third major title in succession after the Open and US PGA last year.

A dramatic victory in near-darkness at Valhalla saw McIlroy pushed the hardest in any of his four major wins and McGinley believes the Northern Irishman will benefit from similar challenges in the future.

"A rival will be good for Rory," McGinley added. "If Dustin (Johnson) steps up to the plate like some people are expecting him to, or Jordan Spieth, or Rickie Fowler... some of those guys step up and win a major, that'll only be good for him because Rory has reacted well to adversity and guys challenging him in the past.

" The biggest challenge that Rory has got is keeping the fire lit in his heart. That's what made Tiger phenomenal, being at the top for as long as he was. At the moment Rory's had it for a number of years, he's got that incredible passion. Keeping that lit for another 20 years is another question."

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