Rory McIlroy predicted Justin Thomas “will be fine” after the American looked extremely rusty on his return to the PGA Tour. 

Thomas returned to action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week after spending nearly six months on the sidelines. 

The 32-year-old had a microdiscectomy surgery on his back last October to alleviate a disc problem. 

He opened with a 79 on Thursday and endured a tough time at Bay Hill, missing five putts from inside 10 feet in his first competitive round since the Ryder Cup.

Thomas told of how he “couldn’t keep concentration” on the back nine and had to back off several shots as “I didn’t know what I was doing”. 

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Things didn’t get much better for Thomas on Friday, with the two-time major champion carding his second consecutive 79 to miss the cut by a country mile. 

His card included three bogeys, two double bogeys, one triple bogey and three birdies. 

Still, McIlroy believes Thomas will bounce back. 

“Yeah, look, I haven’t went through surgery, so I don’t know what that’s like to come back from,” said McIlroy after climbing the leaderboard with a 68.

“But, yeah, it’s going to take time. I saw J.T. a few weeks ago and he said that this is going to be his first start and I said, ‘Oof, that’s probably not the best place to come back to after six months off’.”

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McIlroy was alluding to the fact Bay Hill is one of the tougher courses on the PGA Tour where birdies are hard to come by. 

He added: “But look, J.T.’s been one of the best players in the world for the last 10 years, he’ll be fine.

“He just needs to get sort of sharp again and get into tournament mode and all that stuff.

“But, I mean as long as he got through these two days and didn’t feel any ill effects of the back or the surgery, then I think he’s in a good spot.”

McIlroy started the Arnold Palmer Invitational slowly with a level par opener. It left him nine strokes adrift of leader Daniel Berger after 18 holes. 

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But he made up some ground on Friday, dropping only one shot after finding the water after a loose approach at the eighth. 

The highlight of the day for McIlroy arrived at the 10th hole. He made birdie after hitting his drive 338 yards on an extremely aggressive line. 

“One bogey [today],” said McIlroy. “Hit it in the water on eight. But made a good putt for bogey there. 

“I really felt like that kept any momentum that I had for the round going. 

“I played the last 10 holes really, really well. Overall really pleased. 

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“Played a very sort of controlled, patient round of golf, which you need to do around here. Yeah, good day’s work.”

McIlroy added: “If we don’t get any rain the next couple days, which it looks like we won’t, it’s going to be very, yeah, it’s going to be really difficult.

“It’s difficult even if you hit the ball in the fairway, with this little bit of breeze, with the firm greens, I mean, it’s hard to get the ball close. 

“You’re hitting good iron shots to 25, 30 feet all the time, and then you’re not going to make a lot of those. 

“So really have to make the bulk of your score on the par-fives and just stay really patient for the rest of the way.”

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