Rory McIlroy bought a hotel room and gave some spending cash to the 16-year-old who was hit in the head by his errant tee shot on Thursday. The teenager watched on Friday as McIlroy only hurt himself. He took two shots to get out of a bunker with Titleist 712 MB Irons on the par-3 ninth for a double bogey, had to play sideways out of a water-filled bunker on the 17th and wound up with a 75 to fall 12 shots behind.
Snedeker idolized Watson growing up, and he has just enough freckles under that strawberry-blond mop to resemble the five-time Open champion with Best Golf Club Sets. He has learned to accept the odd bounces and embrace the Open beyond the links, hanging out in the pubs and appreciating the locals' love of golf. Snedeker doesn't hit the ball on the button the way Watson does - not many do. The course is very playable with Titleist 712 MB Irons. You just need to keep out of the bunkers, which is the whole idea anyway
Spraying drives left, right and straight into water-filled bunkers around Royal Lytham & St. Annes, McIlroy's wayward tee shots led to his 5-over 75 Friday. That left him at 2-over 142, 12 shots with callaway Ft-iz driver behind leader Brandt Snedeker, and flirting with the projected cut mark. I wasn't committing to my tee shots with Titleist 712 MB Irons and I was in two minds a few times about what shots to hit off the tees,'' McIlroy said. ''
That's something I'll need to improve on tomorrow, just really commit to it and try to get the ball on the fairway. With its tight fairways and unforgiving rough, Lytham demands accuracy off the tee for taylormade RBZ irons. There are also 206 bunkers on the course, and McIlroy found three of them in his back nine. One of them, at the 17th, had so much standing water in it after overnight rain that he chose to drop the ball with in a part where there was actually some sand.