McIlroy suffers more pain at Travelers
Rory McIlroy hits his provisional tee shot on the 10th hole during the second round at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. on Friday, June 17, 2022. (Robert Beck/USGA)
RORY McIlroy looks to be running on empty after suffering another bad day off the tee in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
The world number two was leading the tournament and cruising in 13-under through 11 holes on Friday when he hit the wall down the stretch and ran up a quadruple-bogey eight at the 12th and a double-bogey six at the 15th after three bad fairway woods.
He found himself six shots behind Xander Schauffele at halfway, but all hopes of a third-round charge were dashed when he hit a tree trying to drive the 331-yard second.
His drive ricocheted right and finished in deep rough just 108 yards from the tee box. He moved it just 24 feet and made six there, then bogeyed the fifth before playing the remaining holes in one-under for a two-over 72 that saw him fall back to tied 31st, on six-under.
The Holywood star will have two weeks off to prepare for The Open, though he plans to play the JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor from July 4-5.
After playing his last 25 holes in seven over, he heads into the final round of his fourth event on the spin 11 strokes behind Schauffele, who shot a three-under 67 to lead by a shot on 17-under from close friend Patrick Cantlay, who fired a seven-under 63.
Rookie Sahith Theegala is just three strokes behind Schauffele after a 64 with 20-year-old amateur Michael Thorbjornsen tied for seventh on 11-under after a66 as he seeks to become the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open.
If it was a disappointing day for McIlroy, it was also a tough one for Séamus Power, who shot a level par 70 to slip from seventh to tied 19th on eight-under.
The West Waterford man was two-under for the day with four holes to play but drove into water at the 301-yard 15th and ran up a costly double-bogey six.
As for Schauffele, whose last individual win came in the Olympics in Japan, he's looking forward to playing with Cantlay as he seeks his sixth career title and first individual stroke-play victory on the PGA Tour since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
"Yeah, it will be fun," said the Californian, who partnered Cantlay to victory in this season's Zurich Classic of New Orleans. "I've been looking forward to playing with Pat in a final round. We don't get paired together very often in regular tournaments, only in those team ones. So there's a certain level of comfort we have playing with each other and hopefully that pays off and hopefully we can make a lot of birdies."
FedEx Cup champion Cantlay is looking for his first win since last year's BMW Championship.
"Yeah, if only it was a combined score again this week, we would be doing well," he said of his pairing with
Schauffele. "It's always nice to be out with him, if he's on my team or if he's not. I'm going to go out there tomorrow and try as hard as I can and let the chips fall where they may.”
