Rory McIlroy pays homage to PGA Tour fans at scene | Golf News

Rory McIlroy has made a stable return to the PGA Tour after controversially lacking last week’s playoff opener, and he relished the possibility to reconnect with golf fans in Maryland, as Bob MacIntyre appears to be like to pip Scottie Scheffler.

The five-time major champion at present sat at eleventh place in the BMW Championship after 36 holes at Caves Valley Golf Club close to Baltimore, not far from Congressional Country Club, where McIlroy clinched his first major championship victory.

The Northern Irishman stormed to U.S. Open glory at Congressional in 2011, successful by eight pictures and establishing himself as a true celebrity. At close by Caves Valley, he rebounded from an “awful” even-par first spherical to post a four-under-par 66 on Friday.

The Masters champion gave a shout-out to the spectators at Caves Valley, who have endured blistering temperatures to cheer on their favourite stars.

“I won my first major here just down the road at Congressional. We’ve come back here quite a bit, and it’s been great,” McIlroy told reporters after his spherical, which was highlighted by a spectacular eagle at the par-five sixteenth.

“The crowds out here, even though it is so hot, they’re still pretty enthusiastic and great to play in front of. I’m looking forward to that over the weekend as well.”

Despite taking pictures 4 fewer pictures in his second spherical, McIlroy was still not content with his efficiency as he competes in his first event since The Open Championship a month in the past.

“I scored better, but still not great. Yeah, look, it’s okay, I played a good back nine and I scored well. Made a few saves. But I still want to try to hit a few more fairways.

“Still struggling to get the ball in play. But when I do get the ball in play, I give myself a lot of probabilities and make some birdies.

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“That’s a positive. I just need to try to get the ball in play a little bit more, and I did that for a little bit more on the back nine, and that was why, obviously, I scored better.”

McIlroy was 10 pictures behind chief Bob MacIntyre going into Saturday’s third spherical, and at 36, he concedes his probabilities of successful this week are slim to none.

“Not really,” was his response when requested if he might contend over the weekend. “I think I’m just playing my own tournament at this point, play a good weekend.

“No one goes to clearly exchange Scottie at No. 1 [in the FedEx Cup standings], but attempt to type of solidify that No. 2 spot and then flip my consideration to the TOUR Championship next week. I just need to attempt to play a good weekend and really feel a little bit better about my recreation going into the TOUR Championship.”