Rory McIlroy relishing tougher test as storms head for Players Championship

It looks as if the world’s best golfers should have enjoyed this while it lasted. If forecasted gusts of up to 30mph land at Sawgrass on Saturday, this Players Championship will descend into a war of attrition. Day four carries a 70% chance of storms. The PGA Tour’s marquee event could be about to get grisly.

There was a time in the dim and distant past when Rory McIlroy shied away from playing in poor conditions. How things have changed. The Northern Irishman now relishes the battle. McIlroy’s second round of 68 placed him just two off the lead, held by Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia.

“I’m looking forward to it,” McIlroy said of what lies ahead. “I think it’s going to be really important to try to flight your ball and keep it under the tree line. I think once it gets above the tree line here it can start to really get hit by it. And it does swirl a little bit but I think when the wind is so strong, it will be a little more consistent. This course is challenging enough, but with a wind like that … I’m excited for that challenge.”

McIlroy had flown out of the Friday traps, chipping in at the 10th, his first hole, for a birdie. He played that back nine in a mere 31 shots. Since 2013, McIlroy’s astounding 56 under par aggregate on the inward half here is 20 shots better than any of his opponents.

His second nine was less spectacular. He managed to birdie the 2nd before dropping shots at the 6th and 9th. The four-time major winner was candid over the historic discrepancy between his halves at The Players. “The front nine is much harder,” McIlroy said.

There was improvement, particularly with tee shots, on day one. “I think I hit more fairways in six holes today than I did in 18 yesterday,” McIlroy added. “I got it in play much better and then from there was able to give myself some opportunities and obviously make some birdies early. I couldn’t quite continue that on to the back nine but it was much better off the tee.”

Tommy Fleetwood chips on to the 11th green during his round of 66. Photograph: Chris O’Meara/AP

The leaderboard is a congested one. Collin Morikawa, who was defeated at Bay Hill on Sunday in painful fashion, posted a 65 to join McIlroy at minus nine. “I don’t have to get motivated for this week,” Morikawa said. “You show up and you know what the goal is.

“I’ve looked at it [Bay Hill] on Monday, Tuesday, figured out what do I need to do different, what do I do the same to put myself in that position and just things go your way, right, and you just make it happen.” Or not, as was the case as Russell Henley pipped Morikawa to the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Tommy Fleetwood, who has previous for excelling in strong wind, is seven under following a second-round 66. Like McIlroy, Fleetwood is totally unfazed by upcoming conditions. “Clearly with the wind it’s a completely different test,” Fleetwood said. “It makes controlling your ball off the tee even more important than it normally is and just giving yourself the chance to control your golf ball and trying to be kind of relentless and patient out there and just keep hitting shots, really. Whatever the challenge is, just looking forward to it.”

Scottie Scheffler, pursuing a Players three-peat, is five under having added a 70 to Thursday’s 69. A six-shot deficit to the leaders at halfway will hardly bother Scheffler, such has been his dominance on the PGA Tour in recent times. And yet, publicly the world No 1 was rueful.

“The golf course was definitely gettable the first two days,” Scheffler said. “I wasn’t able to take advantage of it the way that I would have hoped to.

I felt like I could have scored a lot better. The amount of good putts I hit that just went right around the hole, whether it be slight misreads or whatever. At times last year those were the putts that would go in and the last few weeks seems like they haven’t been.”

Scheffler’s wastefulness at least gives others a chance.