The good news for Rory McIlroy is that his recovery from a back injury will be complete in time for the Masters. The bad is that he has less than four weeks to find form before travelling to Augusta National.
That will most likely include two more rounds at the Players Championship, where he closed his second loop with a birdie to leave himself on one over par through 36 holes and nursing a reasonable hope of making the cut.
Five days after he spread concern by withdrawing mid-tournament at Bay Hill, that will have to count as progress. As will his post-round assessment, which was upgraded from ‘unbelievably rusty’ on Thursday to an assessment on Friday that he is ‘pretty much there’ with his recovery.
All that remains is finding his best, which currently appears most elusive around the greens. Off the tee, he was solid during his second-round 71 at Sawgrass, but the greatest discomfort occurs when he is chipping and leaning over putts.
Asked if he was feeling good in the aftermath, McIlroy sent out mixed signals, partially owing to the fact there were enough players still out on the course to ensure he wasn’t guaranteed of surviving to the weekend.
He said: ‘Not really. I wish I was further up the leaderboard. I felt like I played well enough today to be up the leaderboard, I just couldn’t get a putt to drop. I feel like I hit the ball a bit better today than I did yesterday also, so hopefully I’ve done enough to get into the weekend and have another two days at it.
Rory McIlroy (pictured) has less than four weeks to find form before his Masters defence
‘It (his back) feels pretty much there. Not all the way there, but like, I feel like it’s just progressively getting better each and every day.’
In detailing how different compartments of his game are holding up, he added: ‘I’m a little more upright with the driver. It’s more (difficult) when I get over it. It was just like I had a hard time trusting it, more so than anything else. But today it was, you know, I think having a day where I was like, ‘Okay, that was fine, I didn’t really feel anything’. I woke up this morning and felt fine.
‘I’m happy to get two more runs at it. It would have sucked to be going home this afternoon, so to hang around and hopefully play two more days, that’s a win.
‘I think it does wound your pride (to miss a cut). I think, I have 280-odd starts on the PGA Tour and I’ve missed maybe less than 30 cuts. I’m proud of that. But then in golf, as everyone knows, you have to sort of blow it off and move on to the next thing. But if I had have missed the cut I probably would have added an event going into the Masters, so hopefully I’m here for the weekend and I don’t have to do that.’
Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele set the clubhouse lead at 10 under after hitting all 14 fairways in a brilliant second-round 65. Shane Lowry missed the cut after following his opening 76 with a 73.
