Poor Dustin Johnson. The dude just went out and fired a blistering 65, one off the course record, and still finds himself trailing Rory McIlroy by 4 shots after two rounds of the British Open. At that, Johnson missed a few makeable birdie putts along the way, else the Yank might be neck and neck with the Irish lad.
In his much anticipated first major appearance after recovering from back surgery, Tiger Woods didn't fare so well after an opening round 69. He ballooned all the way up to a 77 on day 2, and finds himself a whopping 14 shots behind. Normally, being 14 shots behind the leader won't allow a player to survive the cut. It's usually around 10.
But McIlroy has posted back-to-back 66s to distance himself from the field. So much for the theory that McIlroy plays well on Thursday, but folds on Friday. Indeed, everything seems to be going his way. Even after a rare errant shot, RM would brilliantly recover with the next, and his putting stroke appears to be deadly. Anything inside of 10-12 feet he repeatedly knocked into the cup.
Meanwhile, Tiger was thrashing around in the wilderness. The statistic that stood out was Woods was 6 over par on holes where he opted to use his driver off the tee. Perhaps the Woods man should put that particular #1 wood back in his bag -- and leave it there. Yes, he can hit the ball a long ways with that club, but apparently has no idea which direction it's going to go. Out of bounds here, a double or triple bogey there, and repeatedly having to chop his way through the high grass is not conducive to scoring well. By making a birdie on the 18th hole, a fairly easy par 5, Tiger qualified to play on the weekend -- barely. So he'll get a paycheck, but his chances of winning while currently 14 shots behind are slim to none. It will be interesting to see if he mounts a mini-charge in the last two rounds or falls even further back.
In a sense, the same could be said for McIlroy. Can he keep up his hot play? Or will he crash and burn on the weekend? After all, there are many outstanding players within 6-8 shots of him with 36 holes still to play. A lot can happen, either way, in 36 holes.
And can that be right? McIlroy hit a drive 394 yards on the 17th hole, smack dab down the middle of the fairway? Wow. Downwind or not, that's an incredible blast off the tee.
We'll see. Dustin Johnson lurks, as does Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, and a few others. All quite capable of shooting low scores on the weekend as well. If Rory falters, much less pulls a Tiger and throws up a 77 on Saturday, the tournament could be wide open and any number of players could win.
But if he keeps putting up 66s, fuhgetaboutit. Nobody's going to catch him.
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