Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson displayed their resilience in gutty second rounds to stay in contention at the U.S. Open.
LOS ANGELES — Resilience is not one of the 14 clubs in a golfer’s bag, but it might be a player’s most important tool during a competitive round that means something.Two of the key figures in the 123rd U.S. Open this week at Los Angeles Country Club showed significant signs of resilience on Friday that may just lead one of them to victory by California sunset Sunday.
Rory McIlroy’s adversity was a bit different from Johnson’s in that the 34-year-old Northern Irishman has been stuck on four career major championships for going on 10 years. His last victory in a major was the 2014 PGA. That surely has everything to do with why McIlroy has uncharacteristically gone out of his way to avoid the media this week, canceling his scheduled pre-tournament Tuesday interview and then bolting from the scorer’s tent into the clubhouse without speaking to reporters Thursday — though he had shot 65 and the USGA had requested he do interviews.
Dustin Johnson watches his errant tee shot on the second hole in which he recorded an eight. He bounced back, however, and stands at 6-under par heading into the weekend at the U.S. Open.So, here McIlroy is again, in contention to win his fifth major and end his nine-year drought. With each hole, each shot, the pressure will mount this weekend, because all eyes are on the player who has done everything in the game over the past nine years — except winning that fifth major championship.
“Making a quad on No. 2 definitely didn’t get the day started off kind of how I envisioned it starting,’’ Johnson said. “It could have easily gone the other way.’’In the 2010 Open at Pebble Beach, Johnson lost a three-shot lead in the final round when he took triple bogey on the second hole, opening the door for Graeme McDowell to win.
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