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Rory McIlroy might not have been at his brilliant best on day two at the US Open but the Northern Irishman is still confident this can be the week he ends his long major drought.

Playing in the morning wave, the 32-year-old stumbled to a two-over 73 at Torrey Pines. That leaves him on one-over for the tournament, six shots off the pace set by England’s Richard Bland.

McIlroy, a winner of the championship a decade ago at Congressional, is without a major victory since the 2014 US PGA.

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However, despite an uneven second round performance, he likes where he’s positioned heading into the weekend.

Describing his round as “a bit of a rollercoaster”, McIlroy said: “I made a few bogeys but birdieing two of the last four holes definitely makes me feel better about the round and gives me a nice bit of momentum going into tomorrow.

“Even though Richard Bland’s up there at five-under, one-over is right in it. So, yeah, in for the weekend and still feel like I’ve got a really good chance.”

Ominously for the competition, McIlroy also reckons he knows where he was going wrong on day two and intended to use Friday afternoon to iron out those kinks on the range.

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“I think my alignment was getting a little off,” he added. “I’ll go work on that on the range this afternoon. I felt like I drove the ball pretty well. I think I drove the ball better today than I did yesterday. Just need to straighten out the irons a little bit. If I can do that, as I said, I should have a good chance.”


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Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor

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