Rory McIlroy off to a good start at Doral with new putting grip
Rory McIlroy seems to have found his grip on the greens again.
McIlroy is in contention after 36 holes of the WGC-Cadillac Championship after a Friday 7-under 65 at the Blue Monster leaves him tied for second with Dustin Johnson, two shots behind leader Adam Scott at 8 under par. The four-time major winner’s second round lands him in Saturday’s final pairing with the Aussie at 1:45 p.m.
In just his second round since switching to the cross-handed putting grip, the Ulsterman needed just 23 putts to get around the Gil Hanse-redesigned track, a 10-stroke improvement over Thursday’s first round. McIlroy made 15 of 16 putts from 10 feet and in on Friday. The capper was a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole to get a standing ovation from the crowd around the 18th.
”A great putt to finish with,” McIlroy said. ”Obviously gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend.”
However, McIlroy was a little reluctant to turn to the left-hand-low stroke for the first time since 2008, his first year as a pro. After all, Jordan Spieth uses the same putting grip to, well, better results than McIlroy has seen with the flat stick.
”That was the whole thing for me,” McIlroy said Friday, albeit perhaps not with a completely straight face.
Spieth, though, didn’t give McIlroy any guff for the decision. Well, maybe a little.
McIlroy relayed Spieth’s response to learning of the grip change: “You’ve joined the dark side, I see.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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