{"id":333175,"date":"2026-03-07T04:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T04:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333175\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T04:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T04:11:06","slug":"mcilroy-moves-to-t9th-lowry-misses-cut-after-late-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333175\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy moves to T9th, Lowry misses cut after late error"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Berger opened up a five-shot lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after a steady round Friday at Bay Hill Club with Rory McIlroy just easing himself back into the mix.<\/p>\n

Berger built on Thursday’s 63<\/a> \u2060with a four-under-par 68 to climb to 13-under at the halfway mark of the signature event. Akshay Bhatia posted a 66 to take sole possession of second at eight-under par.<\/p>\n

Also in striking distance are Sahith Theegala (67), Collin Morikawa (71) and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (71), who are tied for third at seven-under par, and Rickie Fowler, who’s alone in sixth at six-under par after his second consecutive 69.<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele and defending champion Russell Henley are a shot back.<\/p>\n

One stroke behind them, and nine off the lead, is McIlroy who is tied ninth after a round of 68 that included five birdies and just one blemish in the form of a bogey on the eighth.<\/p>\n

Shane Lowry fell to three-over par and missed the cut by a single stroke – a bogey on his final hole proving costly as he found the rocks on his approach.<\/p>\n

Berger hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He missed 18 months with a back injury and struggled to regain his old form once he returned.<\/p>\n

On Friday, he rolled in five birdies \u200cwhile limiting himself to one bogey. He ranks second this week in strokes gained approaching the green and third in strokes \u2060gained putting.<\/p>\n

Justin Thomas shot two straight rounds of 79 in his first start of the season following November \u200cback surgery. He finished in dead last among 72 players at 14-over par.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Berger opened up a five-shot lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after a steady round Friday at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-333175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}