Rory McIlroy was delighted after playing himself back into contention at the 2023 US PGA Championship - and is ready to 'bomb it everywhere' over the weekend.
The four-time Major Champion went round Oak Hill in a one-under-par 69 on Friday to sit level par, within five shots of the lead at the halfway point.
Having been three over par for his first nine holes of the tournament, with his prospects of a third US PGA Championship already looking forlorn, McIlroy admitted patience was a virtue in his second round.
“It meant a lot,” he said. “Jeez, I need to be patient with the way I'm hitting it off the tee.
“I think how terribly I've felt over the golf ball over the last two days, the fact that I'm only five back - 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, I'll have a shot. That's the key to my success over the weekend.”
McIlroy had recovered to only one over par for Thursday’s round and after successive bogeys at the sixth and seventh on Friday dropped him back to three over, a stunning 44-foot birdie putt at the ninth turned the tide.
A deft pitch at the 14th and a good approach to the last set up further birdies and left McIlroy in a share of tenth place.
As for how he intends to address his self-confessed “erratic” play off the tee, the Northern Irishman had a simple approach.
“I think at this point I might just tee it high and bomb it everywhere,” he said.
“I tried to hit that little cut off the tee on 16 and it nearly went out of bounds.
“I hit my last two tee shots on 17 and 18 really hard, and they actually were really good tee shots.”
