Rory McIlroy’s chances at a Tour Championship comeback took a big hit Friday.
McIlroy was at 2-under entering the third hole of his second round at East Lake when disaster struck.
The Northern Irishman left consecutive chips short of the green — nearly identical shots — and rolling back to his feet.
It led to a double bogey and caused him to drop down to near the bottom of the leaderboard — far away from the $10 million first-place prize.
“Unbelievable, you just have to err long, especially when it’s your second time,” an announcer said on the ESPN+ broadcast. “To get cute twice in a row, now you’ve got the same shot.”
McIlroy’s troubles on the hole actually started with his approach when he left it short of the green from 115 yards out from the middle of the fairway.
“It is very frustrating. He’s such a talented player,” ESPN’s Andy North said on the broadcast. “When he’s on, there’s maybe nobody better than him.
“He just hits so many quality shots but you can’t keep short-siding yourself, you can’t keep making mistakes with wedges. You look at the difference between the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world, Scottie [Scheffler] doesn’t make a lot of forced mistakes like Rory does.”
It’s been an up-and-down PGA Tour playoff for McIlroy, who finished 66th out of 68 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Then, last week, he seemed poised to take home the BMW Championship after chasing down Wyndham Clark to tie for the lead.
However, McIlroy would bogey 17 while Clark birdied the final three holes to take the title.
“Obviously didn’t come in here with a ton of reps,” McIlroy said after the St. Jude. “[It] almost felt like the more the week went on, the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit.
“The swing wasn’t in sync and obviously I didn’t do a ton of practice coming in here. I’m so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I’ve just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit.”
McIlroy, 37, played less this year and has talked about the desire to prioritize his family. However, the year was not without hightlights as the Northern Irishman took home his second straight Masters in April.
Min Woo Lee held the lead at 8-under after the first round of the tournament outside Atlanta that will wrap up the PGA Tour season.
