Rory McIlroy is making some late-season adjustments to his swing but the old intent is very much part of his DNA; and, as England’s Matthew Baldwin kept cool and calm to claim the overnight lead in the BMW PGA Championship over the West Course at Wentworth in the Surrey stockbroker belt, the Northern Irishman made his presence felt to remain in contention.
“I’m right in the mix,” claimed McIlroy, the world number three, after posting a second round 68 – five birdies and one lone bogey – to reach the midpoint on nine-under-par 135, four shots behind the solo leader.
On a day when play was suspended for more than an hour and 15 minutes due to thunder and lightning in the area, the second round was suspended with 18 players yet to complete their rounds. The cutline stood at two-under par with a possibility of going to one-under depending on how those yet to finish impact.
Four of the five Irish players in the field, however, were inside the cut mark one way or the other: McIlroy (-9), Shane Lowry (-6), Tom McKibbin (-3) and Pádraig Harrington (-2). Simon Thornton, however, was set to miss the weekend.
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For McIlroy, a strong finish – without any of the drama of his first round – saw him birdie two of the closing three holes to post a 68 that put him in tied fourth along the resurgent Italian Matteo Manassero who followed on his good form from last week’s Amgen Irish Open with another good performance.
“I feel good. If I look at the leaderboard, obviously the guys up there at the top have played very well over first couple of days, but maybe not a ton of experience in that position. And then Matteo is playing well again. But there seems to be a lot of the big guns are sort of around seven- or eight-under-par. I feel good about where I’m at and hopefully just continue to feel good about the game for the next two days,” said McIlroy, looking to bounce back from last week’s disappointment at Royal County Down where he finished runner-up to Rasmus Hojgaard.
Of getting straight back on the horse so to speak after that disappointment, McIlroy – who is adjusting his swing with the intention to work more comprehensively on it over the winter break – said:
“I wouldn’t have liked the week off to just wallow in self-pity and whatever else I would have been doing if I had not played. To come back out and get straight back on the golf course and play a couple of solid rounds and give myself another chance at a really big tournament that means a lot to me, I thought it was important to do that and thankfully I have.”
McIlroy, from four back, is very much in the thick of the action with Baldwin four ahead and Niklas Norgaard two ahead of him and Antoine Rozner one shot clear of him. When he won the title in 2014, McIlroy was seven shots back headed into the final round.
Lowry, though, was extremely disappointed with his round of 71 for 138 which left him in tied-13th and seven shots adrift of Baldwin. Lowry’s round featured four birdies and three bogeys. Two of those birdies came in the opening four holes when he looked totally at ease with his game but he stalled following the birdie on the 12th and finished with six straight pars.
“Frustrating, a bad round of golf,” said Lowry, adding: “But it is what it is, you take it on the chin and you move on. I’m only seven back. It would have been nice to birdie one of the last two. We just move on, I am still in a nice position in this tournament around a golf course I love. I’ll give it a rattle this weekend.”
Baldwin may be ranked 363rd in the world and currently sitting 99th on the R2D order of merit, with his one European Tour win – the SDC Championship in South Africa – coming last year but he remained very much in control of his game and his own destiny.
“I’m just playing sensible golf, really, I guess. I’m trying not to hit it too close, which obviously then forces you, sometimes you can get short-sided and things like that. I’ve been putting really well, which has kept momentum going and it’s worked out all right,” said Baldwin.
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