Rory McIlroy is hoping a birdie on the last hole of his second round will be enough for him to make the halfway cut at the Players Championship.
The defending champion, who was among the early starters on Friday, signed for a one-under-par 71 to improve to one over for the tournament – which is right on the projected cut mark, with the top 65 plus ties playing the final two rounds.
McIlroy, who said he was feeling “rusty” in round one after several days without picking up a club as he recovered from a back injury, said he “hit the ball better” in round two.
“I played well enough to be up the leaderboard, I just couldn’t get a putt to drop,” added the world number two, who missed seven birdie attempts from inside 20 feet.
“Hopefully I’ve done enough to get into the weekend and have another two days at it.”
The Northern Irishman only arrived at the course on Wednesday afternoon after opting to stay at home to receive treatment on the injury that caused him to withdraw midway through the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
That limited his practice time to chipping and putting on half a dozen holes, rather than extensive work on his long game.
When asked by BBC Sport how much that reduced preparation had hindered him, he replied: “On a golf course like this, even though we’ve been coming back here for nearly two decades, you need to get a feel for the greens and how they’re rolling and reacting and I didn’t get that.
“It’s almost like [Thursday] was my practice round and [Friday] everything felt a little more comfortable.”
His playing partner Xander Schauffele set the clubhouse pace on 10 under with a scintillating round of 65 at TPC Sawgrass in Florida that featured eight birdies and one bogey.
The two-time major winner hit every fairway in a terrific display of ball-striking.
“I was attacking the golf course versus playing defensive,” said the American, who has twice finished runner-up at the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament.
“It’s always easy to be aggressive from the fairway and take advantage of the greens being just a hair softer. But I think they’re slowly firming up.”
Schauffele leads by one from fellow American Cameron Young, who is on nine under after a 67.
Canadian Corey Conners took just 30 shots for his first nine holes, including holing a 102-yard wedge for an eagle three on the ninth, as he also carded a 67 that lifted him to eight under.
Jordan Spieth also made positive moves up the leaderboard with a run of five successive birdies midway through his round.
But he said his finish “stinks” after posting a double-bogey for second day running. He called golf a “weird game” after signing for a 68 that left him at three under.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, who had an erratic level-par 72 in round one, is among the later starters, alongside England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg is also out on the course and he had three birdies and an eagle in his opening four holes to shoot up the leaderboard.
