Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, recently deposed from the #1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings by Tiger Woods, today showed that his late decision to enter the Valero Texas Open this weekend as a final tune-up before the Masters next week in Augusta, Georgia, was a smart move. On the heels of a hopeful, but less than inspired, performance at last week’s Shell Houston Open, where McIlroy made the cut for the first time this year, the young Northern Irishman decided to play one more tournament before the Masters in order to sharpen up his game.
McIlroy’s performance has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of his ascent to the #1 spot last August (after holding it briefly earlier in the year), his high-profile jet-setting romance with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, and his switch to Nike equipment at the beginning of the 2013 season. His poor performances in the handful of early-season tournaments he played, which included a dubious withdrawal from the Honda Classic in February, had fans and the sports press alike wondering what had become of the young wunderkind who seemed to have the world of golf laid out before him just months earlier.
A flat round of even par on the first day of the Texas Open, on the Greg Norman-designed AT&T Oaks course at TPC San Antonio, didn’t show much promise, but McIlroy played a much steadier game during Friday’s second round, making fewer mistakes – he had only two bogeys against seven birdies – and demonstrating that his game may just be rounding into form in time for him to make a good showing next week at the season’s first major tournament, the Masters.
McIlroy’s second-round 67 shot him 40 places up the leaderboard into a 7-way tie for fifth place going into the weekend.
Tournament leader Billy Horschel put together matching rounds of 68 to move up from T-3 to the top spot on the leaderboard, and stretched his streak of cuts made to twenty-one, carrying on this season from the twelve straight he had racked up at the end of last year. Horschel has yet to win on the PGA Tour, but the if strength his game is showing recently is any indication, his winless streak may end soon – perhaps this weekend in Texas.
Bay Area golfers fared poorly in San Antonio this week. Stockton native Ricky Barnes couldn’t quite recover from a first-round 79, following it with an even par 72 today to miss the cut by six strokes.
San Bruno’s James Hahn opened the tournament with a 4-over 76 on Thursday. After a double-bogey and a bogey in his first nine holes he came back to make five birdies, including two in a row, in his last eight holes, pulling within one stroke of the cut line with one hole, the 474-yard par-4 ninth, left to play. A pulled tee shot on the 9th hole put him in the left rough, and he overshot the green to the left with his second shot. Chipping on to just under 14 feet, a shot that he would have had to hole out to make the cut, he then took two putts to finish, closing his round with a bogey and missing the cut by two strokes.
Fresno native Derek Ernst, a 22-year-old rookie out of UNLV, also missed the cut this week, but he had his moment in the sun on national television with a shot that was highlighted on NBC’s coverage of the tournament. Just off the fairway in the left rough at the par-4 ninth, with 172 yards to the hole, Ernst stiffed his second shot to within 4 feet of the flag. The shot was shown during the live coverage of the tournament, and TV commentator Kurt Byrum said it was the best shot they seen all day on the ninth hole. Ernst made the putt for one of his three birdies on the day, but a two-round total of 154 left him well short of the cut line.
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