AUGUSTA, Ga. — The pine straw at Augusta National is not a fun place to be. It has led to the demise of many a golfer while chasing a green jacket. In fact, it is such a perilous shot that when Rory McIlroy hit a 4-iron out of the fallen needles on No. 13 Friday, he had one message for himself.
"You idiot."
But this wasn't Thursday, when McIlroy left the club after turning a 4-under into even par on two of the final three holes on the first day of the Masters. This was McIlroy settling after a peaceful night and convincing himself he played well for 16 holes Thursday, but just caught every bad break on holes 15 and 17.
"I just had to remind myself that I played really good golf (Thursday) and I wasn't going to let two bad holes sort of dictate the narrative for the rest of the week," the Jupiter resident said.
What it did was energize the No. 2 golfer in the world to get back out there for Round 2, and get himself back into the conversation. And he did.
After a steady front nine of one birdie and eight pars, McIlroy's bounce was back in his step on the back nine. Three more birdies and an eagle led to a 6-under 66, which put him two shots behind Justin Rose, the leader after Friday's early wave.
That back nine had plenty of highlights, but none like that shot on the par-5 13th that led to an eagle.
With 189 yards to the front, McIlroy was trying to decide between a 4- and 5-iron and he still wasn't sure if it would carry the tributary made famous one day earlier by amateur Jose Luis Ballester, who decided to urinate into the water.
But McIlroy avoided it, and not by much, leaving himself a 9-foot putt, which he knocked down for an eagle.
"When the ball was in ...
