NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Rory McIlroy saved his PGA Championship on Friday, rebounding with a second-round 3-under-par 67 to stand at 1-over for the tournament and just five shots out of the lead.
His opening-round 74 on Thursday looked like it might lead McIlroy to the outside of the cutline and home for the weekend.
But he rallied with better, more accurate driving, which failed him in round one.
He had six bogeys Thursday, five of those coming on his final six holes.
“It was a day just to get back into the tournament and I felt like that’s what I was able to do,’’ McIlroy said. “I just needed to try to find a feeling with the driver. A lot of the bogeys I made were because of wayward drives. I felt like I found the feel [Thursday[ night and drove it better [Friday].’’
Bryson DeChambeau’s nightmarish PGA Championship got no better Friday as he flamed out and missed the cut.
DeChambeau followed his opening-round 76 with a 71 to finish 7-over to miss the cut by three shots.
This was the second consecutive major championship at which DeChambeau failed to make the weekend and the fourth time in his last seven major starts he’s missed the cut.
Six club pros finished the two rounds with a lower score than DeChambeau.
Garrick Higgo, who was one of the stories of the first round for being late to his 7:18 a.m. tee time and penalized two strokes, missed the cut by — you guessed it — two shots after shooting a 6-over 76 on Friday to finish 5-over.
Higgo was credited with a 1-under 69 on Thursday even though he shot 3-under on his ball. In the end, the penalty cost him making the cut.
David Puig, a LIV Golf player who was granted a special invite into the field, is taking advantage of the opportunity, shooting 3-under 67 Friday to get to 2-under for the tournament, tied for ninth.
It’s the best position the 24-year-old Spaniard has been in at a major in his career.
“I get up every day for weeks and days like today,’’ Puig said. “I’m really excited about the weekend. I think I’ve been getting a little better year after year, and I definitely got to this major championship as best prepared as I ever was, and compared to the other ones that I played. So, I’m really excited to have some sort of late tee time on a Saturday at a major championship.’’
Puig was one of six players from the 11 from LIV Golf to make the cut, along with Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Joaquin Niemann and Cam Smith.
One of the great stories of the tournament this week has been Ben Kern, a 41-year-old club pro from Hickory Hills in Ohio.
He was the only one of the 20 club pros to make the cut after shooting a 3-under 67 Friday to stand at 1-over for the tournament.
When the round was over, Kern was near tears he was so overcome with the emotion of the day.
At the time he finished his round, Kern was leading the entire field in birdies with nine through 36 holes.
He said a round like Friday’s “just proves to myself that I can hang with these guys when I’m playing solid, and it was really nice.
“I felt good [Thursday], didn’t put up a good score (74). But I hung my head high and I had a goal [Friday] and I surpassed it.’’
This was Kern’s first major championship since he made the PGA in 2018.
“The PGA Championship in 2018 was my first-ever anything on the big stage,’’ he said. “The game was pretty sharp that week.’’
Speaking of club pros, the Block Party ended Friday when Michael Block, the California pro who stole the show at the 2023 PGA when he finished tied for 15th, missed the cut.
After shooting even par Thursday, he slipped to a 5-over 75 on Friday.
Chris Gabriele, the only club pro from the Met Area, from Old Westbury Golf and Country Club and playing in his first major championship, missed the cut at 14-under, with a pair of 77s.
The argument supporting 20 club pros being invited into the PGA Championship field every year took a hit this week with 14 of the 20 occupying the bottom 14 spots on the leaderboard.
The 2023 and ’25 European Ryder Cup captain made the cut at 4-over for the week while Bradley, the U.S. losing captain, missed the cut at 6-over.
