Rory McIlroy drew up a plan. Suddenly he’s contending again

There’s a lot happening in Rory McIlroy’s life during this Ryder Cup buffer season. He’s headed to a bachelor party soon, after which he’ll fly to Rome for Ryder Cup practice, then to London for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. All of that succeeds his injured end to the PGA Tour season, where he harbored through a tight back to a T11 finish at the Tour Championship. The Ryder Cup begins in exactly 20 days, and McIlroy was among the first to admit this week, he just hasn’t played much golf lately. 

For now, we get a good look at what that means as McIlroy is playing the Irish Open before his jet-setting tour. Early in the week, it seemed like it could be just a ho-hum start.

McIlroy shot a casual three-under 69 Thursday and then teed off late Friday to find that Shubhankar Sharma was already at 14 under for the tournament. Twelve birdies and an eagle in your first 27 holes will do that. So it appeared McIlroy was destined for another solid finish, even if he wouldn’t necessarily contend for the title. 

Anyone who thought so, yours truly included, hasn’t been watching McIlroy this summer. 

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The 34-year-old hasn’t finished worse than 11th in any tournament worldwide since May. He missed the cut at the Masters in memorable fashion, but has been so good ever since that he’s actually ranked No. 1 in the world by DataGolf, despite the show of form Scottie Scheffler has delivered all season. McIlroy hasn’t bagged a major in nine years but he continues to rise in his form by the end of summer, evidenced by his scintillating Scottish Open victory in July.

Perhaps that’s why McIlroy’s relatively average start to the week didn’t bother him. After shooting 70 in the second round to push his score to five under, McIlroy was asked what it might take if he wants to win this tournament. 

“Once I get the ball in play off the tee, then this course is, you know, it’s there for the taking,” he said Friday. “You know, you’ve seen people go out shooting 64s and there’s no reason why if I play the way that I know that I can; that I can go out there tomorrow, shoot something like that and get myself back in the tournament. And even if I do that, I’m sure I’ll probably still be a few behind going into Sunday but I’ll probably be a lot closer to the lead than eight shots.”

Twenty-four hours later, almost exactly that happened. 

McIlroy shot the round of the day Saturday, a 7-birdie 66, capped off by birdies on 17 and 18 to finish the round and race of the leaderboard. Whatever rust he was feeling entering the week had worn off, particularly with the driver, hitting 57% of the fairways, a vast improvement from 42% and 35% from the first two rounds. If anything, that 64 he dreamed up should have happened, since McIlroy’s 66 came with a bogey on the 16th hole, site of one of the greatest shots of his life at the 2016 Irish Open. 

Perhaps most dangerous is that McIlroy’s response to that 66 was to downplay it a bit. A reporter asked him to describe the “charge” he put up Saturday and McIlroy backed off that word immediately. 

“Yeah, it didn’t really feel like a charge,” McIlroy said. “It just felt like a really solid day of golf, giving myself plenty of looks and converting a few, which is probably the difference between the last two days and today. A really solid day’s play and I needed a little bit of help from the leaders, as well.”

Whatever help he needed, he got most of it. Shubhankar Sharma, Ross Fisher and Jordan Smith all failed to break par, cracking the door wide open for plenty of competitors. Hurly Long sits out front alone at 13 under, one ahead of Smith and two ahead of McIlroy. Importantly, McIlroy will be playing in the final group. Another one of those “really solid” days of golf — like he’s done so many times this summer — and he’ll be celebrating even harder at that bachelor party.