Rory McIlroy Has a New Swing Thought, and It's Working So Far at Scottish Open

McIlroy leads by one shot through 36 holes at the Scottish Open.

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland - Its only halfway through, but Rory McIlroy looks bound and determined to finally win the Scottish Open on his eighth attempt after a 4-under 66 in Friday’s second round.

McIlroy has played Scottish Opens at Loch Lomond, Royal Aberdeen, Dundonald and twice at its current home at the Renaissance Club, with literally no success. He's missed the cut three times with a best finish of T19 in 2008 at Loch Lomond.

McIlroy leads by one shot over Tyrrell Hatton, Tom Kim and first-round leader Byeong Hun An, and he picked up right where he left off after a 6-under 64 in Thursday first round with five birdies and a lone bogey on Friday.

“I felt really good about my swing all day,” McIlroy said. “I found something at the Travelers, and I’ve got a really comfortable swing thought at the minute and I’ve carried it with me over the last few weeks. I definitely think it has helped my iron play and my wedge play in particular, and I think that has showed over the last couple of days.”

That swing thought remain a mystery, but going a little farther back in McIlroy’s season, over the last five tournaments starting with the PGA Championship at Oak Hill and adding the two rounds this week at the Scottish, McIlroy has not finished outside the top 10 and has a scoring average of 68.27.

In those 22 rounds, the four-time major winner has only recorded four rounds over par.

“I feel like my putter was really good yesterday, and I held some good ones, and it was more my ball striking today,” McIlroy said of the key to his round. “So, it's nice to know that sort of both ends of the game are in good shape.”

When McIlroy missed putts on Friday, it was either a misread or misjudging the speed, but nothing fundamentally wrong in the stroke. He felt he was hitting the putts where he was aiming and at the same time gaining confidence.

“Good par save on seven, good par save on nine as well,” McIlroy said. “I missed a few chances for birdies, but I feel I made up for them with those good par saves.”

Next up is Saturday's third round and a forecast for bad weather. The tournament has moved up the tee times and will use a two-tee start.

For McIlroy, the bad weather is not a concern, and he believes the best way to win is to embrace the conditions and just accept how the course will play.

As is typical for Scottish weather, what McIlroy and the remaining 76 players in the field will see is relatively calm, wet conditions in Saturday’s third round and no rain, but extremely windy conditions in Sunday’s final round. Sunday's forecast calls for gusts of over 40 mph.

And of course, whatever happens this weekend, next week is McIlroy’s last chance at a major in 2023.

“If I'm purely focused on the open, I would say winning might not be the best thing,” McIlroy said of next week at Hoylake. “It's very hard to follow up a win with another one. But I think I've done pretty well over my career and trying to reset on a Sunday night after a tournament is finished and go on to the next one. But whether you win or not, I don't think really matters this week going into next week, knowing that you've been in contention that you've played well. I think that's the most important thing.”

Those who won’t be here with McIlroy this weekend after missing the cut include Americans Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth, Adrian Meronk form Poland, Ludvig Aberg from Sweden, Australian Adam Scott and Englishmen Luke Donald, Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick and Danny Willett.