Rory McIlroy birdied his final hole to boost his chances of making the cut at the Players Championship.
The defending champion has been struggling with a back injury and could only manage a two-over par 74 on day one in Sawgrass.
But a birdie on the ninth hole – his last of the day – saw him post a one-under 71 to leave him in with a good chance of returning for the weekend.
He told Sky Sports: “I felt a little bit better. I would say if anything it was just I was struggling to trust everything was OK yesterday.
“I struggled a little bit on lies that were beneath my feet and stuff like that, but today I felt pretty good and felt like I hit the ball well. I really just couldn’t get a putt to drop. That was the issue.
“I tried my best, I grinded and made a good birdie at the last, hopefully to make the cut.
“Game feels good, I just went five or six days without really touching a club or doing anything so just getting my feels back a little.
“Hopefully another couple of days to get myself up the leaderboard. I’m 11 back at the minute, I’m not sure I’m going to contend for the title, but hopefully two good days and have a respectable finish.”
McIlroy had withdrawn from the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday before his third round, but having spent some extra time recuperating at home he felt fit to defend his title in Florida.
He said he felt “rusty” on Thursday after he laboured through his opening round.
But he returned on Friday and immediately recorded a birdie, putting from five feet on the par-four 10th.
A bogey on the 14th dropped him back to two over but he picked up a stroke on the par-five 16th as he reached the turn in one under par.
The five-time major champion found the water on the fourth as he dropped back to level par for the round.
But on the 582-yard par-five ninth he reached the green in two before narrowly missing his eagle chance from over 30 feet, leaving him just inside the projected cut mark of two-over par.
