Rory McIlroy offers bold claim: "Probably won't be popular for saying this"

Rory McIlroy admitted he was in favour of having a more 'cut-throat' nature to the PGA Tour after he rallied to make the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. 

McIlroy started sluggishly at the signature event at Bay Hill, carding an opening round of 1-over par 73. 

But the Northern Irishman bounced back on Friday with a 2-under 70. 

The four times major champion had to work hard to make that number as his card was littered with bogeys. 

McIlroy dropped strokes on 3, 6 10 and 11 but he put circles on his scorecard at 2, 7, 9, 12, 13 and 16. 

He was most improved on the greens, picking up +3.118 strokes against the field on day two compared to losing -3.298 on Thursday. 

"I felt my speed was just a bit off more than anything," McIlroy told reporters.  

"The greens look faster than what they are, so just trying to be a little more assertive with my speeds." 

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Stifling a laugh, McIlroy added: "Sometimes with the mallet, because it is so much easier to start it on line, you get a little lazy.

"So, I brought the blade out last night just to hit a few putts to sort of get a feel of what I need to do to get the ball to the start on line with a real putter."

McIlroy was asked about the signature events that have reduced fields for the 2024 season. 

He said he was 'indifferent' about having a cut but stated he was in favour of a tour that is 'more competitive'. 

"I think, when all these signature events were thought of, we were thinking no cut, but if it's important enough, or if it's that important to Tiger and Jack and if Arnold were alive, if it was important enough for him, then it's their tournament, at the end of the day, and they can do whatever they want.

"I could have went either way, but if it's important enough to those guys, then we'll have a cut."

Asked if he was in favour of having more players in the field, he said: "No, I mean, I'm all for making it more cut-throat, more competitive.

"[I] probably won't be very popular for saying this, but I'm all for less players and less Tour cards, and the best of the best."

At the other end of the leaderboard, Shane Lowry was at 7-under after 36 holes before the afternoon wave of players started their rounds. 

The 2019 Open champion is searching for his first win since the 2022 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. 

Hideki Matsuyama was also inside the top-10, along with Will Zalarotis and Brian Harman. 

England's Tommy Fleetwood missed the cut after coming unstuck with a disastrous 10 on the par-5 sixth hole.

See the full leaderboard here

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