Rory McIlroy makes return to form ahead of US Open

Rory McIlroy shot a resurgent 68 at the Memorial on Friday that bodes so well for the season’s third major in two weeks’ time. And the Northern Irishman then admitted that he over-prepared for the Masters and believes that playing the US Open venue “blind” could actually be a benefit.

In truth, the world No 3 did not perform that much better in the second round in Ohio than he had in his opening 72. Only a triple-bogey on the 18th at Muirfield Village had blighted his Thursday and then the pre-event words of Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner who is this week’s tournament promoter, rang large.

“I don’t know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he goes par, par, par, double, eight,” Nicklaus said.

Yet McIlroy shrugged off that setback – as well as the criticism – to hurtle himself up the leaderboard to stand on four-under, just three-back of the early clubhouse leader, Hideki Matsuyama.

McIlroy, 34, recognises that his game is not nearly at its peak, but it is not all doom and gloom, particularly after he followed the missed cut at Augusta with a battling seventh at the US PGA Championship two weeks ago.

“I got one bad break on 18 [on Thursday] with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker,” he said. “So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this…  I can’t let that unlucky break hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”

McIlroy now acknowledges that he spent too much time at Augusta in the lead-up to the Masters – where he fell woefully short of completing the career grand slam – and is relishing trying to end his nine-year barren major run at the elusive club in the middle of Beverly Hills without any prior knowledge.

“Never played there and I’m defending in Canada next week so won’t see it until the Monday,” he said, before talking about his inquest after the Masters. “I was telling myself that for the fortnight afterwards. ‘Why do I spend so much time here? I know it like the back of my hand’. I play better when I just react to what’s in front of me, instead of playing by memory. It’s nice playing courses a little blind.”