{"id":539461,"date":"2026-03-14T07:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T07:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539461\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T07:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T07:06:16","slug":"rory-mcilroy-makes-players-cut-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539461\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy makes Players cut \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The change in body language told its own story, as a broad grin on Rory McIlroy<\/a>\u2019s face \u2013 accompanied by a firm, holding handshake grip to his caddie Harry Diamond \u2013 after a closing birdie to his second round guaranteed the Northern Irishman\u2019s defence of The Players would extend into the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the small victories are as important as the big ones. And for McIlroy, who arrived late to the PGA Tour<\/a>\u2019s flagship tournament following days of treatment on a \u201cstubborn\u201d lower back muscle injury, a second round 71 for a midway total of one-over 145 ensured an extension of his workdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be here for the weekend. I\u2019m happy to get two more runs at it. It would have sucked to be going home this afternoon, so to hang around and hopefully play two more days, that\u2019s a win,\u201d said McIlroy, that closing birdie on the Par 5 ninth demonstrating his fight and skill set.<\/p>\n

After enduring some frustration as a number of putts slid by or clipped the edge of holes, McIlroy knew a birdie and nothing less was needed: his drive of 310 to the left fairway gave him a 3-wood approach from 279 yards which he hit to 30 feet above the pin. The eagle putt, like so many of his earlier birdie attempts, didn\u2019t drop but left a tap-in birdie to survive the cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I was further up the leader board. I felt like I played well enough today to be up the leader board, I just couldn\u2019t get a putt to drop,\u201d said McIlroy, adding his ongoing treatment and limiting pre-round exercises to stretches had seen further improvement. \u201cIt feels pretty much there. Not all the way there, but I feel like it\u2019s just progressively getting better each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShaneShane Lowry plays a shot on the ninth hole during the second round at TPC Sawgrass. Photograph: James Gilbert\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

For Shane Lowry<\/a>, however, a second round 73 for five-over 149 meant a second straight missed cut having also missed out at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In truth, the real damage for Lowry came on his closing hole of Thursday\u2019s first round where two water balls led to a quadruple bogey eight on the 18th<\/a>. <\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s smiling demeanour showed his pleasure in surviving into the weekend, even if the task of edging a way into contention would seem a Herculean challenge, given he trailed Xander Schauffele by 11 strokes after the American followed his opening round 69 with a 65 to reach the halfway stage on 10-under 134, a shot clear of Cameron Young.<\/p>\n

Schauffele has experienced something of a feast or a famine at Sawgrass, missing the cut on three of his previous seven appearances but also managing two runners-up finishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure (why), couldn\u2019t tell you. This is a really big tournament. I think everyone sort of tries to come in with their whole team and feeling good and all those things. So I\u2019m just happy to be playing well right now,\u201d said Schauffele, after an impressive display of ball-striking which saw him take eight birdies on his way to the clubhouse target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The change in body language told its own story, as a broad grin on Rory McIlroy\u2019s face \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,756,1656,85],"class_list":["post-539461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-shane-lowry","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}