Rory McIlroy bemoans slow play on ‘tough day’ at the Masters

Rory McIlroy bemoaned the woeful pace of play after seeing his bid for a career grand slam blown off course on day two of the Masters.

McIlroy’s birdie-free second round of 77 took an incredible six hours and two minutes to complete alongside Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler, the world number one’s 72 giving him a share of the halfway lead with Max Homa and Bryson DeChambeau on six under par.

McIlroy, who slumped to four over, said: “Tough day, really tough day.

“Just hard to make a score and just sort of trying to make as many pars as possible. I felt like I did okay. I made that bogey on 14, and even just to par the last four holes and get in the clubhouse and have a tee time tomorrow, I’m sort of pretty happy with.”

Asked about the pace of play, McIlroy said: “It felt long, yeah. Especially that 11th hole, it felt like it took an hour to play that hole.

“It was stop and start, hard to get into a rhythm with the conditions and obviously how slow the play was as well.”

He continued: “I won from 10 back [at halfway] in Dubai at the start of the year, but obviously the Dubai Desert Classic and the Masters are two very different golf tournaments.

“We’ll see. Hopefully the conditions are a little better tomorrow. Yeah, I still think I can go out tomorrow and shoot a low one, get back into red numbers, and have half a chance going into Sunday.”