Resilient Rory McIlroy rebounds at Genesis Scottish Open

The last time we saw Rory McIlroy was in the final round of the US Open when he shockingly missed two short putts to lose the tournament to Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke. After DeChambeau made his impressive up-and-down par to win on the 72nd hole, McIlroy stormed off the property never to be seen again until this week.

I for one don't blame McIlroy for his reaction to losing the US Open one bit. He had the victory at one of the biggest tournaments of the year in the palm of his hands before he did the unthinkable and choked away the win in one of the most heartbreaking fashions I have ever seen.

However, that moment in his career is now behind him and all eyes now turn to him at the Scottish Open.

I personally had not the slightest clue how he would do at the Scottish Open. I could have seen him come out with a vengeance and dominate the field or have a lackluster performance and lose the tournament on the first day. After what he went through a few weeks ago at Pinehurst, anything was possible.

Rory McIlroy did what the best in the world do and came out and played extremely well.

McIlroy finished with a 5-under par performance, putting himself three off the pace set by Justin Thomas after the first round.

The highlight of McIlroy's first round was this chip-in for eagle on hole three, to move him to 4-under par at the time.

McIlroy followed up his impressive first round score with another stellar performance in his second round. A 4-under second round score moved McIlroy to 9-under for the tournament and a tie for fifth place, just three shots back of the lead.

The defending champion couldn't ignore the thoughts and questions about his collapse at the US Open a few weeks ago, but it sounds like after Thursday's round he was ready to put it behind him.

After his first round, McIlroy shared: "Obviously the last time I played, I played well. I didn't get the result I wanted but I've still got a lot of confidence in my game. I went time-out there today, shot a solid score. A couple I would have liked to hole coming in and be a few shots lower but overall great start to the tournament."

McIlroy continued: "I sort of picked up where I left off."

That last quote makes me realize that maybe a solid score this week should have been expected from McIlroy. He obviously played extremely well at the US Open, but that was all overshadowed by the two missed putts at the end of the tournament. But if you ignore those two putts, he played well enough to win the US Open, so he clearly is still riding that momentum this week at the Scottish Open as he prepares for the British Open next week.

I'll be curious to see how the final round plays out for McIlroy. Do I expect him to win? Not really. But at this point, it seems like a top-10 finish is on the horizon, and that's something I wasn't sure was possible 48 hours ago.