LOUISVILLE—Rory McIlroy is making this PGA Championship feel like 2000 all over again at Valhalla.
Back then, it was Tiger Woods who was making the game look easy as he started to pile up majors. Now it’s McIlroy, the 25-year-old from Northern Ireland who produced superior shots with his long game and made all the right putts Friday for a 4-under 67 that gave him a one-shot lead over Jason Day and Jim Furyk.
“When I’m playing like this, it’s obviously very enjoyable,” McIlroy said. “I can’t wait to get back out on the course again tomorrow and do the same thing all over again.”
For Woods, such feelings are becoming distant memories.
He missed two short putts early—one for birdie, one for bogey—and looked as if he should never have tried to play the final major of the year with a sore back. Two birdies on his last three holes only kept it from being worse. Woods shot another 74 and missed the cut in a major for the fourth time.
“I tried as hard as I could,” Woods said. “That’s about all I got.”
Oddly enough, McIlroy opened with the exact same scores (66-67) as Woods did 14 years ago at Valhalla, when he barely outlasted Bob May in a playoff for his third straight major of the season on his way to an unprecedented sweep of golf’s biggest events. AP