Despite scoring 4 shots worse on No. 8, Rory McIlroy fires 64 at Travelers

Well, that’s one way to play a hole in even par through two rounds…

A day after carding the first hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career by holing a 5-iron at TPC River Highlands’ par-3 eighth hole, Rory McIlroy stepped on the eighth tee box on Friday of the Travelers Championship having just played his previous 16 holes in 8 under. The hole was playing a bit shorter, too, at 177 yards, down from 214 yards the round prior.

But this time, McIlroy, with 8-iron, couldn’t produce anywhere close to the same result. He rinsed his tee shot, coming up short of the green, before re-teeing from the front tee box and sending his third shot about 23 feet past the front pin.

A couple putts later and McIlroy was tapping in for a double bogey.

“Most of the day we’ve been playing the wind out of the sort of southeast,” McIlroy explained. “I felt, if anything, it might have just moved to the east, which would’ve been straight off the right. I hit my 8-iron 175 yards for the most part, so I thought if I just hit a really good 8-iron, I would get it to pitch pretty much between the front edge of the green and the hole. … The wind just sort of switched on us. Hit a pretty good shot. I just misjudged the wind a little bit and it came up short – the one place you couldn’t miss today on that hole.

“Other than that, it was a really good round of golf.”

Full-field scores from Travelers Championship

That it was: Eight birdies, over three strokes gained on the greens, no other dropped shots besides the two at No. 8 – the latter especially impressive considering McIlroy’s last hole, the par-4 ninth, where he parred despite hitting his drive onto some cables and catching a tree limb with his second shot. McIlroy’s 6-under 64 moved him to 8 under, where he was three shots back of clubhouse leader Eric Cole when he wrapped up play. (Eventually, Denny McCarthy posted a Travelers 36-hole record, 15 under, to grab a commanding lead as the afternoon wave was playing.)

“Everything was just a little bit better today,” McIlroy said. “I played more solid, gave myself more opportunities, you know, eradicated most of the mistakes I made.”