Just before six in the morning in Spain, Rory McIlroy’s ball rolls twisting and whimsically towards a bushy area to the right of the fairway on the 14th hole at Royal Melbourne. It looks like a rabbit dodging predators. Anything can happen. Tension. It is the second round of the Crown Open of Australia and the career grand slam champion does not have the weekend guaranteed. At that moment, he is at total PAR, exactly the score that marks the cut. That ball doesn’t help.
It stops under the canopy of a large shrub. He’s been lucky. If it rolls one more metre, it ends up unplayable. There, at least, he can get in, very crouched, in an uncomfortable and unnatural position, but he has the chance to make a quarter swing and get the ball back to the fairway. All amateurs have found themselves in that situation more than once or a hundred times. Anything is done to avoid giving up a stroke. Moreover, McIlroy is not in the mood to make concessions. He is on the edge.
Rory misses on the first attempt. He swings and misses. It’s not a huge mistake, as he is in a terrible situation, but it can be very costly. He ends up making a bogey and is at +1 with four holes to go. Out of the cut. In Australia. And after making a bogey on a par 5. The hole that was supposed to be a saviour becomes practically his grave. In the season where you’ve completed the Grand Slam, with four individual victories behind you, the Masters and the Ryder Cup away from home, the temptation to say this is it, start the plane, I’m going home, is enormous. Not for Rory.
His reaction was quite the opposite. He gritted his teeth even more and gave the enthusiastic Australian fans a thrill with a dizzying sequence. He hit an impressive drive on the 15th hole to leave it on the edge of the green and made an easy birdie with chip and putt. Then he was very close to making a birdie on the 16th. His putt stopped three fingers from the hole. On the 17th, a par 5, he made another birdie. Again, he missed the fairway to the right, but executed a sublime second shot, saving a tree with a controlled masterful slice. Two putts. And finally, as a grand finale, he played the 18th by the book. Great drive, spectacular second shot, and a two-metre putt for birdie. Three under in the last four holes. From being out of the cut to giving himself a chance for the whole weekend. He is at -2, seven strokes behind the two leaders: Portuguese Daniel Rodrigues and Danish Rasmus Neergaard Petersen. The pride (and class) of Rory. He hasn’t missed a cut in a regular DP World Tour tournament since the Scottish Open in 2021.
The names of the afternoon in Australia, beyond McIlroy, are Min Woo Lee (-8), who has climbed to the top with a scorecard of 65 strokes, boosted by a fabulous eagle from the fairway on the 10th. Also Cameron Smith (-7), also with 65 strokes. The Australian’s first cut of the year. Better late than never. Not only will he be there for the weekend, but he will fight for the victory. Similarly, Adam Scott (-7) and Caleb Surratt (-6) are also at the top.
As we have already told you in Ten Golf, Rafa Cabrera Bello (-6) and Josele Ballester (-5) are the best Spaniards with 36 holes to go. They are impeccably positioned for the final assault. Additionally, along with Rocco Repetto (-1), Sebas García (-1) and Quim Vidal (-1) have made the cut. The former was three under on the day, but a painful finish of bogey, par, and double bogey made him lose a lot of ground. He went five under on the day, another demonstration of what he is capable of. Vidal makes his first cut as a professional in the DP World Tour and the second in three tournaments played in this circuit.
The downside of the week has been for Adri Arnaus (+5) and David Puig (+2), whose comeback attempt fell short in the morning. The playing conditions this Friday have been much better in Melbourne, although the forecast points to a windy weekend.
