Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood jumped up the 147th Open Championship leaderboard on Friday as they cruised around a rainy, overcast Carnoustie for Round 2. McIlroy shot his second straight 69 to get to 4 under and within one of the lead at the time he finished. Fleetwood was one of the players that held that 5-under lead after he shot a 6-under 65, the round of the tournament so far and one off the best rounds ever at Carnoustie during an Open.
McIlroy looked to be in complete control of every part of his game for most of the day. He made four birdies and just two bogeys for the 35-34 round. His first 11 holes were mostly flawless, and he kept giving himself birdie look after birdie look on a day when a softer course was actually playing harder than it did on Day 1.
He used, as analyst Frank Nobilo pointed out, what looked like two different swings throughout to put himself in premium position. The first was that powerful, rhythmic long iron stroke off the tee and the second a sort of knock-down, cutting action with his shorter clubs. The result was another round in the 60s at one of the most difficult courses in the world.
McIlroy noted before the tournament began that any strategy a player started the event with was unlikely to be kept for all 72 holes. He proved himself correct on Friday as he laid back off the tee -- after attacking on Day 1 -- and took what the course gave him.
"Yesterday (was) much easier," McIlroy said on Golf Channel after his round. "I thought today with the wetness and the damp and the cold, the ball wasn't going very far.
"I didn't have an opportunity to get driver in my hand very often. All the bunkers seemed to be in play off the tee so I opted a much more conservative strategy. Hit a lot more irons off the tee, left myself further in. It was two completely different rounds of golf. It ended up being the same score either way and a good position heading into the weekend."
That much is true. McIlroy will go late in Round 3 and will almost certainly be the favorite come Saturday afternoon as he goes for major championship No. 5.
What struck me most about his round, though, was how well he constructed it. Did he hit bad shots? Of course. Did he make every putt? No, he didn't. This is an Open. Those things are going to happen (or not happen). But nothing -- even the wayward tee shots coming home over the final four holes -- ever seemed out of his grasp. On a day when those final four holes were playing a stroke and a half over par, he gained a little ground on the field.
This was epitomized by how he played the easy par-5 14th. A tee shot in the bunker seemed to take birdie off the table. However, McIlroy hit a filthy bunker shot up near the green and touched off an even more impressive up and down for birdie. It was unconventional, but McIlroy wins when his unconventionality results in something positive.
I was talking on Thursday with noted course and ball-striking enthusiast Andy Johnson of the Fried Egg, and he was adamant that this course -- like most Open courses -- reveals who the best and most skilled golfers are. Not the luckiest, necessarily, though it does take luck to come out on top on Sunday. But rather the ones who are the best at shaping shots, working angles and giving themselves chances.
That sounds like it would be a common theme for any golf tournament, but it's not. When courses are unimaginative and provide few choices, the best players in the world are neutered. But when you give them choices and weather factors in, they can combine elite ball-striking with a higher level of thinking to provide great entertainment as well as success. When there is greater variety in how you get around a course, actual skill is rewarded because the best players can take on shots that lesser players wouldn't dare.
We saw that on Friday after McIlroy made bogey at the par-4 12th, his first bogey of the day. He came to the par-3 13th needing a quick bounce back before the wicked closing stretch, and he got it. But McIlroy only birdied the 13th because he took on a tucked pin just beyond a nasty bunker up the right-hand side of the green. It was not a wise shot for most players. For him, it was an opportunity.
Another golfer who took advantage of some opportunity on Friday was Fleetwood. He started the day at 1 over looking up at a host of major champions and other stars. He ended it looking down at them after that bogey-free 65. It was two off his own course record, but easily the best Open round he's ever played. Fleetwood is seemingly constructed specifically to contend at courses that demand spectacular long iron shots as this one did on Friday because of the weather.
It was pointed out on the broadcast and confirmed by McIlroy that banging driver all over the yard was not going to be advantageous. Enter Fleetwood, maybe the best player in the game if you were only allowed to play rounds with a 2- or 3-iron.
A shootout between these two golfers over the final 36 would be outrageous, and of course I'm here for it (though to be fair, I'm here for a Rory shootout with literally any golfer in the world). Carnoustie seems to be pulling the best from its competitors thus far, and this pair has rocked over the first two rounds.
As the tournament rolls on and those North Sea winds winnow the chaff, McIlroy and Fleetwood will likely anchor what should be a terrific weekend leaderboard at this Open. Their styles and swings are quite different, but both have staying power from here on out. Carnoustie may have different plans of course, but if McIlroy and Fleetwood keep hitting the ball like they have over the first two days -- 15 birdies and six bogeys combined -- they could clash for a Jug late on Sunday.
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