The vagaries of the weather in the second round of this 105th US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club was of a front that didn’t know whether it was coming or going, but there was far greater clarity from Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy who moved into contention at the halfway stage.
On a day of shifting conditions, of sunshine and rain, wind and calm, Lowry shot a superb second round 67 and McIlroy carded a 69 for the pair to lie on level par 140, five shots adrift of co-leaders Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners.
“I thrive on weekends like this,” said Lowry who zoomed up the leaderboard with a run of five birdies on his homeward run before hitting speed bumps on the closing stretch with bogeys on the 17th and 18th.
Lowry rolled in more than 100 feet of putts on a wonderful day with his putter in hand on the greens, his hot streak bringing birdies on the 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th and 15th as he moved very much into the business part of proceedings in his quest to add another major to his Claret Jug win of 2019.
“I have been working so hard to get myself physically and mentally in the right place,” said Lowry of finally getting some reward for his work this season. “It felt like I turned the corner at Quail Hollow [in the Wells Fargo], even though I missed the cut. There are certain other parts of my game I am not happy with. I have not chipped the ball as well and I haven’t drive the ball as well as I did in practice. So, if I can do that this weekend and match it up with everything else [you never know].
“I stood on the first tee in practice and said, ‘I like this place’, I was like, ‘I fancy this place’. I was disappointed with [the first round] but I knew it was only one day and sort of felt going out this morning if I can get under par for the tournament with nine holes to play on Sunday you never know what might happen.”
For McIlroy, who had been feeling under the weather during the practice days and in the first round, a closing birdie on the 18th hole for a 69 moved him into a strong position to challenge over the weekend.
“Jeez, I need to be patient with the way I’m hitting it off the tee. Yeah, look, it’s that sort of golf course. I feel like with the way it’s set up it’s sort of easyish to shoot 72 but pretty difficult to shoot 67. When I’m working on the range, I hardly miss a shot on the range, and then it’s just trying to get it to go from the range to the golf course that I’m finding difficult. I think my patience was rewarded with a couple of good breaks and a couple of birdies coming in,” said McIlroy, seeking a first major since his 2014 PGA at Valhalla.
McIlroy added: “I think how terribly I’ve felt over the golf ball over the last two days, the fact that I’m only five back – yeah, not saying I could be up there with one of my best performances, but when I holed that putt at the last, I looked at the board, and I thought, I can’t believe I’m five back. I guess that’s a good thing because I know if I can get it in play off the tee, that’s the key to my success over the weekend. If I can get the ball in play off the tee, I’ll have a shot.”
Pádraig Harrington also made a move up the leaderboard until suffering a double-bogey six on the seventh hole, his 16th of the second round.
The Dubliner hit some magnificent approach shots to get early birdies but suffered that late blip as he signed for a 71 for 143 (in tied-35th).
“As often happens, you know six is such an intense hole you’re thinking about it for two or three holes before you play it. You get up on seven and you just make a mess, I’m just terrible at doing that. That’s a bit disappointing.
“Every hole is a tough hole out there. I would like to think if it was six I wouldn’t have done what I did on seven because you’re kind of waiting for six and there’s a level of trying to get through six and then seven you kind of take a breath and unfortunately that’s sometimes not great for me,” said Harrington.
Still, Harrington, a three-time major winner, again showed his fortitude in ensuring he survived into the weekend with a chance – despite the forecast of heavy rain – to make further inroads.
