Rory McIlroy’s walk-in of his birdie putt on 18 had all kinds of sauce to it, though it appears that some of it was unintentional.
“I thought I’d left it short. That’s why I walked off it. Full disclosure. It looked good, though,” McIlroy said about the 20-footer that got him to 5-under-par and a tie with Patrick Cantlay atop the leaderboard.
McIlroy had five birdies, 13 pars and zero bogeys in his round, playing with the only two players ranked above him in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele. Scheffler is T36 after finishing 1-over-par and Schauffele is T17 after an even-par 70.
“I enjoy playing in these groups. When you’ve been out here for, whatever it is, 16 or 17 years, sometimes you need a little extra to get the juices going, and being in a group like that definitely helps,” McIlroy said.
