Tiger Woods was on "59 Watch" on Thursday at the BMW Championship after an opening 29, but it was Rory McIlroy who came closer to achieving golf's magical number. After a mere three birdies over his first eight holes, Rory ripped off six in a row to get to 9 under through 14 holes on the par-70 Aronimink Golf Club before settling for an eight-under-par 62 to match Tiger. Turns out, his low scoring is even more impressive when you factor in what he did during Wednesday's pro-am.
Following his round, McIlroy told Golf Channel that he birdied eight of his final nine holes the day before. The five-time major champ figured out that combined with his first 14 holes on Thursday, he played a 23-hole stretch in 17(!) under par.
"That's pretty good," McIlroy said.
Um, yeah.
Of course, pro-am setups are usually a lot easier than the real thing. No Laying Up noted its Wednesday pro-am partner Tommy Fleetwood shot a 60 of his own. Still, 17 under in a 23-hole stretch is some kind of golf. And is has Rory reconsidering how he approaches pro-ams.
“I don’t really carry much momentum from Wednesday to Thursday at any point,” McIlroy said. “But maybe I should try a little harder on Wednesdays. It seemed to work this time.”
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