Rory McIlroy birdied three of his final four holes on Friday to get inside the cut line at the Australian Open.
The world’s No. 2-ranked player was in danger of missing the weekend at Royal Melbourne Golf Club following a bogey on the par-5 14th hole that included a whiffed shot from under the trees and dropped him to 1-over par for the tournament. McIlroy promptly birdied the following hole and added two more birdies to close his round and card a 3-under 68.
McIlroy is 2 under for the tournament, with the cut line falling at 1 under. The Northern Irishman will begin Saturday’s third round seven shots off the lead shared by Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Portugal’s Daniel Rodrigues, who is currently No. 1,319 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Australia’s Min Woo Lee is one shot back at 8 under, followed by a trio at 7 under that includes fellow Australians Adam Scott and Cam Smith along with Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz. Smith snapped a string of seven consecutive missed cuts outside of the LIV Golf league.
McIlroy is coming off a playoff loss at last month’s DP World Championship and is playing in the Australian Open for the first time since 2014. He won the tournament in 2013, but sits in a tie for 57th midway through this year’s event.
“I certainly haven’t had my best stuff over the last couple of days, but it was nice to finish the way that I did,” McIlroy said. “It wasn’t looking great after the bogey on 14, but overall, a great finish (and) delighted to be here for the weekend.
“Seven isn’t too far back. I feel like if I can go out tomorrow morning and shoot a good one, I can get myself right back into the tournament.”
