Three Share Lead in Scottish Open; McIlroy Slips Back after 78


There are three new names atop the leaderboard of the Scottish Open, and Rory McIlroy's is not among them. McIroy got off to a great start with a course-record-setting 7-under 64 on Thursday at Royal Aberdeen. But the 25-year-old Northern Irishman had a much different second round, posting a 78 to drop into a tie for 34th.

Replacing the Ulsterman in a tie for first through 36 holes are Scotland's Marc Warren, who's carded rounds of 67 and 69, Argentina's Ricardo Gonzalez and Kristoffer Broberg of Sweden, who each followed up their opening 65s with a 71. The trio stands at 6-under 136 heading into the weekend.

The wind continued to blow at the ancient links course alongside the North Sea - but from a much different direction than the previous day, and the scores soared as well.

Nowhere was that more apparent than with the about-face performance by McIlroy, who opened with eight birdies and a bogey but had six bogeys, a double and one birdie for his 7-over tally on Friday.

Such second-round woes have become an alarming pattern for the former No. 1, who's now eighth in the World Golf Ranking. "I think it is a mental thing more than anything else," McIlroy told reporters Thursday of his affliction. "Trying to keep yourself in the lead or trying to keep yourself up there. I think every time that I've played well or had success in a tournament, my mind hasn't been too much on the leaderboard or too much on my position in the tournament.

"I feel like sometimes this year when I've gotten myself into the lead or I shot 63 in the first round [at the Dubai Desert Classic and Memorial Tournament], I focused too much on where I was on the leaderboard or where I was in the tournament instead of just going out and trying to play another solid round of golf."

After his Friday round, McIlroy said, "Just one of those days that nothing really went right, and you know, I'm here for the weekend at least. I'm only two shots off the top 10 somehow. But go out tomorrow and go out early enough and try and shoot something similar to what I did the first day.

"But this is the first - it was the first day I'd play the course in this wind direction. It was much tougher than it was yesterday, so even playing the front nine into the wind you're going through the dunes, so you're sort of sheltered a little bit and you don't really get as much of it. But the back nine is sort of up on a plateau and you're more exposed, so that wind that we faced on the back nine sort of into, off the left was very difficult."

One stroke behind the leaders is England's Justin Rose, who's recorded a tidy 69 and 68, while two back is fellow Brit David Howell (70).

Because of the shift in the wind over the first two days, the players have found Royal Aberdeen to be a different course each day. Rose made the necessary adjustments, while many didn't. "That was fun actually today," the 2013 U.S. Open champion told reporters. "It's great to see. That's the thing about links golf.

"I think I said that to you earlier in the week, if you had to choose one course for the rest of your life, it would be a links course, because it can be different every day, and that was fun to see in completely opposite wind today. You had to make your score on the front nine today instead of hanging on like you did yesterday.

"All the holes were different, different bunkers came into play. I had to think a lot. Obviously, I hadn't seen the course in this wind yet, so today was definitely a learning round again, but pretty happy to get a round of 68."

The wind shift was certainly evident for McIlroy, who on Thursday powered a 426-yard drive on the 13th hole but on Friday his tee ball went 276, a difference of 150 yards.

Tied for sixth at 3-under 139 are Finland's Mikko Ilonen (68) and Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard (69). Sharing fourth at 140 are three Brits - Luke Donald, Tyrell Hatton, Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood, Ireland's Shane Lowry, Spain's Adrian Otaegui and Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti, Dane Soren Kjeldsen, Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey and Scotland's Greig Hutcheon.

The top-ranked Americans at 1-under 141 are amateur Ollie Schniederjans, Jimmy Walker and defending Scottish Open champion Phil Mickelson, who has posted rounds of 68 and 73. Rickie Fowler and John Hahn are in a big group tied in 34th with McIlroy at even-par.

Mickelson concurred with many of the players that the wind reversal made the going difficult. "It was tough," said the five-time major champion, who the very next week after his win in last year's Scottish Open took home his first claret jug with his victory at Muirfield in the Open Championship. "It was fun to have those conditions. It was fun to turn back those back nine holes playing into the wind. It was a real challenge.

"You have to hit different kinds of shots, and I actually played pretty well. I thought I made a couple loose swings and it cost me four shots. I hit three poor tee shots. It cost me four, but I fought hard all day to keep it around here."

Hoping to recover from an opening 75, Florida's Brooks Koepka second round came undone when he quintuple-bogeyed the par-5 12th hole en route to a 77.

The cut was set at 2-over 144. Among those heading home are Kevin Stadler - who finished second in last week's French Open, multiple major winner Nick Faldo and fellow Englishmen Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014054/leaderboard/index.html.