Rory McIlroy bounced back from his poor opening round at The Open.
He entered Friday at two-over par, with some work to do just to make the cut. But a second round 67 leaves him seven shots back of the leading Lucas Herbert with two rounds to go.
He’s further back from the lead than he’d like, but not out of it by any means. And McIlroy has a target score in mind for tomorrow to get him well in the mix.
Rory McIlroy’s target score for round three of The Open
McIlroy was slightly happier with his round two score. He thinks he still has a chance to win his second Claret Jug, and is targeting at least a 66 on Saturday.
He said, “Yeah, it was a little better. Yeah, I felt like I had momentum coming off the end of the front nine there with the two birdies on 8 and 9. I felt like I stole a little bit on the back.
“Look, I think the main objective today was to be here for the weekend, which I am. I felt like I left a couple out there. Then you look at the board and you see a couple of 62s, and you feel like you could have done a bit better.
“Yeah, get off to a decent start tomorrow. There’s a couple of guys up there, this will be sort of their first experience of playing in the lead at a major championship on the weekend, so there’s obviously some that are very experienced at it like Cam and like Sam as well.
“Yeah, I think if I can get off to a decent start tomorrow, be 4- or 5-under for the tournament, I’ll be right in it.”
If you’re going to have a bad round, might as well get it out of the way, and McIlroy will be hoping his best golf is ahead of him this weekend.
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