EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsSOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. -- Rory McIlroy will start the third round of the 126th U.S. Open seven strokes behind 36-hole leader Wyndham Clark.McIlroy doesn't think that's too much at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, where anything seems to be possible depending on the weather and playing conditions. Brooks Koepka was five strokes back at the midway point of the 2018 U.S. Open, the last one played at Shinnecock Hills."I think Brooks was pretty far back going into the weekend in 2018," McIlroy said Friday after he posted a 1-over 71 to fall to even par after 36 holes. "So, yeah, if there's a course where you feel like you still have a chance if you're seven back going into the weekend like I am, it's definitely this one."After McIlroy made the turn at 2-under 33 on the front nine on Friday, it seemed that he would get much closer to Clark.But then, just like that, McIlroy made three straight bogeys on Nos. 10-12. On the par-4 10th, McIlroy inexplicably bladed his approach from 79 yards over the green. He couldn't get up and down and made his first bogey of the round."Honestly, I was a little too close to the green," McIlroy said.McIlroy said he choked up on a lob wedge because his ball was sitting on soft turf near a drain."I was almost afraid of chunking it, so I was trying to clip it and not take a divot, and I thinned it," McIlroy said. "It was a tricky shot, but no excuse to hit the shot that I did."On the par-3 11th, McIlroy watched playing partners Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig berg hit a pitching wedge and come up short of the green on the 154-yard hole."I hit a pitching wedge and just made sure to get it up in the air," McIlroy said. "I hit a good shot and it got carried in the wind a little bit too much."McIlroy's ball ended up 57 feet beyond the hole. He chipped 22 feet past the hole and made another bogey to fall to even par in his round.The damage wasn't done. On the par-4 12th, McIlroy blasted a 345-yard drive down the left side of the fairway. But he hit his approach too far again and chipped 45 feet past the hole, which resulted in a third straight bogey.McIlroy bounced back with consecutive birdies on Nos. 13 and 14. He hit his approach on No. 13 to 10 inches for a tap-in birdie. After pulling his drive into the native grass on the 14th, he found the green and made a 43-footer for birdie.A double-bogey 6 on the 15th erased what he'd made up with the birdies.McIlroy will have to eliminate those mistakes if he's going to have any chance at catching Clark over the final 36 holes, especially on a course as difficult as Shinnecock."You can't go chasing pins around here," McIlroy said. "You can't try to be too aggressive, because once you do that ... today for me was a prime example. I was a little too aggressive to the pin on 11, a little too aggressive to the pin on 12. All of a sudden, just two bogeys in a row out of nowhere."I think you still have to play smart, try to keep the ball under the hole, hit it into the middle of the greens and take your chances when they present themselves."
