Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are both on eight-under par heading into the weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after rounds of 70, though they took very contrasting paths to get there.
The Irish duo sit tied-14th, six shots adrift of the in-form Austrian Sepp Straka, who carded a second successive 65 to lead by three strokes on 14-under par.
McIlroy and Lowry had begun Friday at six-under after recording opening rounds of 66 at Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach respectively, on a day when both players, remarkably, landed hole-in-ones.
Playing his second round at Pebble Beach, McIlroy briefly rose to tied-second in the tournament after recording four birdies in an outward nine of 32 to get to 10-under.
As the wind rose on the famous Monterey Peninsula, the four-time major winner proceeded to undo all that good work over the course of a disastrous six holes on the back nine. McIlroy recorded bogeys on the 12th, 13th, 16th and 17th, missing the green on all four holes and finding himself up against the lip of a bunker on two of them.
Back where he started the day on six-under, McIlroy, as entertainingly uneven as ever, found an eagle on the famous par-5 18th, draining a 25ft putt to finish with an unlikely flourish after a trying inward nine.
Over at Spyglass Hill, Shane Lowry handed in a less colourful scorecard, recording 16 pars, along with birdies at the opening hole and the penultimate hole to card his own 70.
Seamus Power is on four-under par for the tournament after a one-under par 71 at Spyglass Hill. The two-time winner on the PGA Tour recorded three birdies and two bogeys on Day 2 to sit tied-47th overall.
Straka, who won the American Express a fortnight ago, rattled in eight birdies en route to his second successive 65 and leads by three strokes from Russell Henley and Cameron Davis.
One stroke further back is a quintet on 10-under par, containing Justin Rose, Tony Finau, Aaron Eckroat, Tom Kim and Andrew Novak.
The large group of players on nine-under includes Viktor Hovland and 2009 US Open champion Lucas Glover.
Alongside Lowry and McIlroy on eight-under are Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, reigning Irish Open champion Rasmus Hojgaard and Justin Thomas, who pitched in for eagle from the bunker at 18.
Scottie takes an alternate route on No. 18 at Pebble Beach.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 31, 2025
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World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who somehow avoided going out of bounds on 18 at Pebble Beach after pulling his drive into the beach left of the fairway, carded a second round 70 to sit on seven-under par heading into the weekend.
