Rory McIlroy shrugged off a disappointing finish to his second round of the Players Championship and insisted he would relish the forecast tough weekend conditions at Sawgrass.
Mcllroy bogeyed two of his last four holes to add a 68 to his opening 67 and lie two shots behind clubhouse leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia, who both shot 66 to reach 11 under par, one ahead of JJ Spaun.
Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa was alongside Alex Smalley and McIlroy on nine under following a superb 65, with Tommy Fleetwood on seven under after a 66 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler two strokes further back following a 70.
Justin Thomas was just a shot behind Scheffler after equalling the course record with a stunning 62, a remarkable 16-shot improvement on his opening 78.
Thomas, who played with Tom Hoge when his fellow American set the record in 2023, looked set to fare even better when he covered the first 17 holes in 11 under, only to drag his approach to the 18th into the water to drop his only shot of the day.
Shane Lowry squeaked into the weekend on one under in joint 65th after improving his first-round score by one to 71.
However, Seamus Power missed the cut as he was four shots further despite also shooting 71.
Despite the couple of sloppy holes towards the end of his round, McIlroy produced an impressive day’s work that would have verged into excellent if a few putts hadn’t shaved the hole.
Starting on the 10th, the Holywood golfer was quickly out of the blocks with a brilliant round off the tee putting him in fine positions time and time again.
Starting the day on five-under par, McIlroy birdied his first with a delicate chip in from the side of the green before picking up three more birdies over his next six holes.
At the 18th, McIlroy produced a moment of magic as he escaped from the pine straw, the ball rolling to within eight foot in one of the shots of the tournament as he went out in 31.
That took him to ten-under overall and he took advantage of the par-five second hole to move into the lead.
From there though, McIlroy lost some momentum with his first bogey of the day arriving at the sixth as he twice found sand while he veered badly left with his second on the last hole, forcing him to play out, and while his fourth set up a possible par, his attempt just ran out of steam.
"Much better," McIlroy said when asked to assess his swing during the second round. "Hit it much better off the tee. I think I hit more fairways in six holes today than I did in 18 yesterday.
"Yeah, got it in play much better and then from there was able to give myself some opportunities and obviously make some birdies early. Couldn't quite continue that on to the back nine, but it was much better off the tee."
Wind gusting up to 30mph is forecast for Saturday and Sunday, but McIlroy believes he is well equipped to deal with the challenge as he seeks a second Players Championship title.
"I’m looking forward to it," the 2019 winner said. "I think it’s going to be really important to try to flight your ball and keep it under the tree line. I think once it gets above the tree line here it can start to really get hit by it.
"It does swirl a little bit, but I think when the wind is so strong it will be a little more consistent. This course is challenging enough, but with a wind like that, yeah, I’m excited for that challenge.
"Just trying to control my ball flight, trying to hit different shots, trying to play with some creativity is something that I think I’ve gotten a lot better at over the last few years."
Playing alongside McIlroy and Scheffler, US PGA and Open champion Xander Schauffele birdied the ninth – his final hole of the day – to finish one under par and potentially extend his streak of made cuts to 59, the longest since Tiger Woods' run of 142 from 1998-2005.
"I was thinking about the cut line for sure," Schauffele said. "Knew I needed to make birdie. I think two-putting is probably the easiest way to birdie nine and I was able to do that."
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