Olympia Fields continues to challenge top golfers on second day of BMW Championship.

It would seem Rory McIlroy has found his mojo and is back in the swing of things at the second day of the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields in Chicago, even without fans to keep his head in the game.

And that is a good thing, as Olympia fields is challenging even the world’s top golfers to bring their A-game.

Even though both McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay made their fair share of mistakes they couldn’t allow it to diminish their focus on what is turning out to be the toughest test of the PGA Tour so far. The pair ended as the sole golfers to par at the end of another steamy day.

At the Northern Trust last week, McIlroy admitted sometimes it felt like he was just going through the motions and that the lack of cheering fans was influencing his game in a negative way. On Friday, though, he was almost back on top form with a 1-under 69, sharing the 36-hole lead with Cantlay.

“I think the test is what’s helped me focus and concentrate because if you lose focus out there for one second . . . just one lapse in concentration can really cost you around here,” McIlroy said afterwards. “I think one of the big keys this week is just not making big numbers. If you hit it out of position, get it back in position, make sure that your worse score is bogey and move on. Honestly, bogeys aren’t that bad out here.”

It feels like a U.S Open

Cantlay did his best with what he got and holed a 50-foot chip to birdie and a 50-yard wedge for an eagle. He also missed the green on three of the par 3’s with the last one unfortunately ending in a double bogey. He finished strong with a 6-iron out of the thick, lush rough and made a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, ending with a 68 that matched the best score of the round.

“It’s about as stiff of a test as you could want. It’s very, very difficult,” Cantlay admitted. “You have to play from the fairway, and you have to play from below the hole, frankly. The greens have so much slope on them that you really need to be putting uphill. And so if you’re in the rough, it gets exponentially harder to do that.”

They were 1-under 139 and one shot ahead of Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama. Johnson finished birdie-birdie for 69. Matsuyama was the only player to reach 4-under at any point during the week. He dropped four shots over his last 10 holes for a 73.

Not everyone was so lucky. The course was rough and tough on Tiger Woods. If he can’t get his game back on, his PGA Tour season will be over in two rounds.

There weren’t enough good shots in Tiger’s bag on Friday to make up for all his bad ones. He had to make an incredible 35-foot par put on the final hole to shoot a sad 75 – nine shots behind. He will need to finish fourth to break into the top 30 and advance to the Tour Championship. No mean feat as he is currently trailing in the bottom of the pack.

For the golfers at the top, it was an enjoyable challenge. For everyone else . . . it was literally rough at the second day of the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Dhssv6