Rory McIlroy has set his sights on a "respectable finish" at The Players after closing his second round with a stunning final-hole birdie to move inside the projected cut at TPC Sawgrass.
McIlroy admitted to being "incredibly rusty" during his opening-round 74, having entered the week without a practice round due to a back injury, although he immediately moved forward with an opening-hole birdie at the 10th on Friday morning.
The two-time Players champion posted one birdie and one bogey during the rest of his first nine and dropped another shot at the fourth, leaving him outside the projected cut with five holes to play.
McIlroy remained on two-over until the par-five ninth - his final hole of the day - where he reached the green in two and two-putted for a birdie that closed a one-under 71 and moved him back in position to avoid an early exit.
Playing partner Xander Schauffele set the clubhouse target at 10 under after a seven-under 65, with McIlroy 11 strokes back but inside the top 65 and ties required to play two more rounds at the PGA Tour's flagship event.
"I felt a little bit better," McIlroy told Your Site. "I would say if anything it was just I was struggling to trust everything was ok yesterday. I struggled with things like lies just beneath my feet, but today I felt pretty good and felt like I hit the ball well.
"I just couldn't get a putt to drop - that was the issue. I tried my best, I grinded and made a birdie at the last to hopefully make the cut. All in all another couple of rounds around here, which is never a bad thing."
McIlroy made the dream start to his second round after setting up a six-foot birdie at the 10th but failed to take advantage of the par-five next, where he had to lay up from the fairway bunker and missed a nine-foot birdie opportunity.
He two-putted for par at the 12th and produced an impressive up and down to save par at the next, before under-hitting a chip from off the 14th green that left him carding a first bogey of the day.
A two-putt birdie at the par-five 16th left McIlroy back under par for the day, with the Northern Irishman left scrambling again - having missed the green with a wedge - to hole a 12-foot par putt at the 18th.
McIlroy failed to take advantage of the par-five second and squandered a 12-foot birdie chance at the third, before holing from a similar distance to salvage a bogey at the next - having found water with his approach - to slip outside the projected cut mark.
The 36-year-old still looked in danger of an early exit heading to the par-five ninth, where a sensational 284-yard three-wood saw him finish 30 feet from the flag and set up a two-putt birdie.
"The game feels good - I just went five or six days without really touching a club or doing anything, so getting my feels back," McIlroy added. "Another couple of days hopefully to get up the leaderboard.
"I'm 11 back, I'm not sure I'm going to contend for the title but another couple of days to have a respectable finish hopefully."
McIlroy plans to have further treatment on his back ahead of the weekend, while he confirmed that making it through would impact his tournament schedule ahead of next month's defence at The Masters.
"I have 280-odd starts on the PGA Tour and I've missed maybe less than 30 cuts, so I'm proud of that," McIlroy told reporters. "But in golf, as everyone knows, you have to blow it off and move on to the next thing.
"If I had have missed the cut I probably would have added an event going into The Masters, so hopefully I'm here for the weekend and I don't have to do that!
"I'm happy to be here for the weekend. I'm happy to get two more runs at it. It would have sucked to be going home this afternoon, so to hang around and hopefully play two more days, that's a win."
There are three PGA Tour events after this week before his title defence at Augusta National, the Valspar Championship (March 19-22), Texas Children's Houston Open (March 26-29) and the Valero Texas Open (April 2-5).
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