Rory McIlroy needed his caddy to remind him that he was, well, Rory McIlroy, after a nervy and nightmarish start to the 146th Open Championship. Thankfully J.P. Fitzgerald wasn’t required for anything more than the traditional bagman’s duties on Friday.

The real Rory finally showed up for the second round at Royal Birkdale, a two-under 68 getting the Ulsterman back into the championship at -1. A second Claret Jug will still take some winning but that he’s even in the conversation is nothing short of remarkable. Remember the 28-year-old was 11-shots off the pace after just six holes on Thursday.

“To be in after two days and be under-par for this championship after the way I started, I’m ecstatic with that,” said McIlroy who birdied two of his first three holes in an outward 31 and then made a series of momentum saving up and downs for par coming home.

There were bogeys on the 13th and 15th but he kept major carnage off his card and a birdie at 17 ensures he’s in the red for the weekend. The swagger is back.

“I was very proud of myself that I hung in there and tried to stay as positive as I possibly could. But, look, I just had to turn it around. I had to find a couple of little key thoughts, and I feel like I have. And I went with those today and it worked. I’ll try to keep those in my head going forward the next couple of days.”

Any hints on how you flicked the switch? “I mean, it’s not really much. It’s more about creating a picture in my head and being very clear with how my visualisation is.

“A couple of little keys that I tell myself before I step in to hit a shot or step in to hit a putt. Very simple, but obviously quite effective over the past 27 holes. I felt like that wasn’t very good the first few holes yesterday.”

If McIlroy does go on to an unthinkable fifth major this weekend, Fitzgerald’s “You’re Rory McIlroy, what the …. are you doing?” pep talk on the sixth Thursday will go down in Open folklore. Either way, McIlroy admits his bagman is more than just a man required to crunch numbers and clean clubs.

“He does do it quite often, it’s just whether it penetrates my head is a different thing,” McIlroy said of JPs on course psychology lessons. “He’s great. He tries to keep me as positive as he possibly can. Sometimes I get down on myself. We’ve been together for nine years now. He knows me pretty well. And he knows what to say out there and what not to say. And he definitely said the right thing yesterday when I needed it.”

As important as the par saving putts on 10 and 11 were Friday, so too was his pin-seeking approach to the notorious 6th.

“I saw a lot of better iron shots. I saw some really good putts going in. So, yeah, there was a lot of quality out there and I was happy to see that. Just have to try to keep that going for the next two days.”

The post The Open 2017: The real Rory McIlroy ‘ecstatic’ with Birkdale fightback
 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In the midst of all the racket, Zach Johnson tried to explain to reporters how he shot a “yeah, right, you had a four-under 66 in that wind” four-under 66, the lowest score posted by two strokes and on of just four sub-par numbers signed for midway through the round.

The funny thing was that the 2015 winner at St. Andrews didn’t actually spend much time talking about his crazy-low round, with its five birdies, five fairways hit and 13 greens in regulation, but rather how disappointing his British Open week had been prior to today. Which made his crazy-low round even more crazy.

The trouble began for Johnson on Tuesday when he managed to crack his driver during a Tuesday practice round. “Last week I drove it great,” said Johnson, who had a T-5 finish at the John Deere Classic the previous weekend. “And then cracking your driver on a major championship week when you have some comfort level isn’t exactly ideal.”

Come Thursday’s opening round, Johnson seemingly couldn’t do anything right. He hit just half his fairways with his replacement driver, and his usually reliable ball-striking deserted by hitting only nine of 18 greens. The resulting five-over 75 left him tied for 121st.

The ordinarily mild-mannered two-time major-championship winner admitted to being a little steamed after his round, and decided he need to take out his anger at the practice range.

“I got mad, which was good. I let it out. I was upset,” said Johnson, who also had a chat with his sport psychologist, Dr. Morris Pickens, who is on site at Royal Birkdale. “I wasn’t furious and bouncing off the walls. I was just upset with my performance, because I felt great coming into the week.”

So Johnson went to work on his new driver, pounding out ball after ball as penance. The good news was that he started hitting it well again, toward the end of his session. Too bad he felt it was probably too little, too late.

Johnson did take away another a saving grace for Thursday’s round, what he described as “great bogey” that he made on the 18th hole after hitting his second shot backward out of a pot bunker, then two-putting from off the green, making a six-foot to close it out.

Improving his score by nine strokes boosted Johnson and his one-over 141 total into T-40 when his round was over, a position that kept creeping up as the wind continued to howl and predicted rain started to fall.

Asked again to assess his actual play on Friday, Johnson finally acquiesced, saying for an Open round, it was up there just behind his final round at St. Andrews two years ago. More importantly, it provided a lesson for him about his mindset for the remainder of the week.

“What I do know is that based on the last two days, you never know what is going to happen tomorrow,” Johnson said. “But hopefully there’s some confidence, momentum for the rest of the weekend.”

Yeah, hopefully.

The post The Open 2017: An angry Zach Johnson takes out his rage on Birkdale with a crazy good 66 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.