Rory McIlroy Has Chance for Another Big Victory at THE PLAYERS

Rory McIlroy has put himself in contention once again at THE PLAYERS Championship. While some have doubted his ability to close this year, he’ll have an opportunity to silence those critics if he can come out on top at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday.

To someone like Rory McIlroy, big is relative. He’s already won four major championships, a FedEx Cup, the Race to Dubai three times and numerous titles around the world. But The Players Championship is a very big tournament with the largest first-place check on the PGA Tour each year. It’s bragging rights. It’s out-shooting everybody who is anybody in golf. It’s also worth a five-year exemption, not that he really needs it. But it’s convenient, as they say, for scheduling.

While Saturday is usually moving day for those who are playing well, McIlroy started off with two bogeys and found himself struggling the rest of the way. It wasn’t the fluid, race car-like charging golfer in full flight that Rory McIlroy often resembles.

“Not the best position I could be in, but I thought after the start today, that to play the last 16 holes in 4-under par with no bogeys was a good effort,” he said to media before he went to the range to hit balls.

“I don’t mind bogeying the first, that’s fine. But then the bogey at the second hole was a little disappointing,” he added. “I showed some character out there, showed some grit. Got a few back.”

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He birdied the difficult 7th, a long-ish par-4, and more difficult 8th, a hard to hit and hold par-3, but his lone birdie on the back nine was the 11th, a par-5 with water and sand both fronting the green.

Unfortunately, he put a ball in the water at the par-5 16th when his second shot flew the green and landed in the water beyond the green. His closest competitors, Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood, both birdied it.

“It just came out so hot,” he explained. “I didn’t think it was going to come out as hot as it did and even if it goes — like it did go in the water — you can drop it, and I still had a reasonable chance for birdie. So, I didn’t think twice about taking it on.”

Fortunately, he was able to make a par there and the rest of the way.

McIlroy hit only four fairways on Saturday compared to 10 and 11 in the first and second rounds, even though the wind was not up.

According to Jim Furyk, who played just one group ahead of McIlroy, the wind was more like five to seven miles per hour instead of the predicted 14. So, McIlroy’s high balls would not have been much affected by the conditions.

“I hit it really good the first couple days. I don’t know, I mean, just maybe getting ahead of it a little bit,” he said about the issue.

His par five conversion was not good, either. He bogeyed the 2nd, parred the 9th, birdied the 11th, and made par out of the water at the 16th.

“I haven’t played the par-5s that good the last couple weeks,” he admitted. “Only played them in even par today. It’s definitely, you know — it’s definitely an area tomorrow that I need to really concentrate on and try to make the most of those holes.”

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To win, he’s going to have to wrestle Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and the treacherous TPC Sawgrass golf course in breezy conditions with the chance of rain. If today was his “bad” round, he should be fine.

“It would have been nice to pick up a couple in the last few holes, but I’m still right there going into tomorrow,” he added.

Nobody said it was going to be easy, but that’s what makes THE PLAYERS Championship what it is. And that’s just the type of challenge that Rory McIlroy has proven up to so many times before.