Rory McIlroy put his late lapse on the opening day firmly behind him with a stunning round of 66 on day two of the Masters at Augusta National.
McIlroy made double-bogeys on the par-five 15th and par-four 17th on Thursday to undo an excellent opening round and leave him on level par entering Friday – seven behind first-round leader, Justin Rose of England.
But McIlroy made up for all of that with a majestic six-under-par round on Friday, doing most of the damage on a memorable back-nine run that saw him come home in just 31 strokes.
After an opening par, McIlroy had to work hard to birdie the par-five second and proceeded them to make seven straight pars, turning in one-under-par overall.
However, stunning approaches to the 10th and 11th gave him back-to-back birdies and got him moving before, having parred the short 12th, he kicked into high gear with a fabulous – if slightly fortunate – eagle on the 13th.
He then birdied the 15th and parred his way home to leave him two behind Rose, who shot a solid 71 to remain leader by one, on eight-under-par.
That birdie on 15 coupled with a par on 17 meant McIlroy had played those two holes five strokes better than yesterday.
“Overall I’m just really proud of myself with how I responded after the finish last night,” McIlroy said after his round.
“I just had to remind myself I played really good golf yesterday and was not going to let two bad holes dictate the narrative for the rest of the week.
“Once I left the property, I tried to leave what had happened here. I rushed home to see (daughter) Poppy before she went to bed and I feel like I did a good job of resetting.
“I had a good conversation with Bob Rotella (sports psychologist) about not pushing too hard too early, just tried to stay really, really patient and that was rewarded with a nice little stretch in the middle of the round.
“I don’t think I proved anything, if anything just backed up the belief I have in myself and the belief that I’m as resilient as anyone else out here.”
Shane Lowry, meanwhile, is right there in contention alongside his countryman, sitting on five-under-par after an excellent round of 68.
“I sort of had a target to shoot something in the 60s today and then I’d be in a nice position going into the weekend,” the 2019 Open champion said.
“The course must have got a lot of rain last night because the course was quite soft and it was gettable, even though it was windy and tricky.
“I felt like I played a pretty solid round of golf. Didn’t do anything spectacular. A couple of times I got myself out of position. I think I did a great job getting me back in, and I’m right where I want to be going into the weekend.
“Look, I don’t come here just to enjoy myself. I come here to compete. This is what we practise for. This is what you get up out of bed for in the morning, for late tee times on Saturdays and Sundays of majors.
“I got myself a late tee time tomorrow afternoon and hopefully I can go out and do something pretty good and get myself a late tee time Sunday and take it from there.”
Playing with Lowry, Bryson DeChambeau also carded a 68 and sits on seven-under-par, one off the lead.
Defending champ and world number one, Scottie Scheffler, dropped his first shot of the tournament when he bogeyed the seventh and eventually signed for an up-and-down round of 71 to put himself on five-under-par heading into the weekend.
England’s Tyrrell Hatton got to seven-under-par through 15 holes, but a pair of late three-putts cost him a couple of shots and he heads into the weekend alongside Scheffler and co on five under.
