PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — On his final hole of the day, Rory McIlroy unleashed a majestic 3-wood that soared over the corner of the dogleg on the 600-yard par 5 and dropped about 30 feet from the flag.
He must have wondered where that sort of play had been all week.
With a final-hole birdie, McIlroy did just enough to qualify for the weekend at The Players but was far from pleased with his performance. His two-round total of 1-over 145 left him 11 shots back of the clubhouse lead at TPC Sawgrass and inside the projected cut line.
“I’m happy to be here for the weekend. I’m happy to get two more runs at it,” he said after a Friday 71. “It would have sucked to be going home this afternoon, so to hang around and hopefully play two more days, that’s a win.”
"It would've sucked to be going home this afternoon."
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 13, 2026
Defending champion Rory McIlroy birdied his final hole to move one shot inside the projected cut line @THEPLAYERS. pic.twitter.com/TwTnnrTXWO
McIlroy reported that his injured back felt “fine” and that he continues to feel “progressively better.” His game, to this point, just hasn’t been sharp enough to make a serious run up the leaderboard: He has lost strokes to the field with his approach play each of the past two rounds and holed less than 100 feet worth of putts for the week. McIlroy didn’t play a practice round this week because of his recent back issue, hitting balls (up to a 6-iron) for only about 30 minutes and walking six holes with a putter and wedge late Wednesday afternoon.
An early exit from The Players would have forced McIlroy to reevaluate his schedule in the run-up to the Masters, with just three Tour events remaining until his title defense at Augusta National. McIlroy has used the Houston Open (2025) and the Valero Texas Open (2022, ’24) as tune-ups in recent years but as of now has not signed up for either tournament.