Edited by Anand Datla
March 21, 2015: Off the golf course, Morgan Hoffmann is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He flies his own plane, works out religiously, plays hockey and likes to drive fast. Friday, he had to remind himself to slow down and go through his pre-shot routine after a sloppy bogey on the par-4 15th at Bay Hill. Hoffmann bounced back with a birdie on the next hole, one of nine on the day, en route to a 65 to get to 13 under and three shots clear entering the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
Defending champion Matt Every is tied for second with Henrik Stenson and Harris English following a pristine morning that featured soft greens, no wind and low scores. A familiarity with Bay Hill — Hoffmann played the course a lot as a kid — didn’t hurt, either.
“We always had matches against each other and played a lot of aggressive shots,” he said. “So, I’m pretty comfortable hitting a bunch of shots into the greens and going at kind of tucked pins because I kind of seen it before.”
In 2009, Hoffmann was part of a loaded U.S. Walker Cup team that included Rickie Fowler, Bud Cauley, Brian Harman, Cameron Tringale and Peter Uihlein. All except Hoffmann have at least one professional win (though Tringale’s came in a team event with Jason Day).
“I’m behind my schedule,” Hoffmann said. “I would have liked to have won a few times by now. It’s frustrating but it’s obviously the most — the best guys in the world are playing on the PGA TOUR and I mean I’m so lucky to be out here and grateful but I’ve seen myself a little higher up than what I’ve performed.”
Rory McIlroy is just five strokes off the lead entering the weekend at Bay Hill. It was the first time McIlroy broke 70 in eight rounds on the PGA TOUR this year, though he had done so in six of his eight rounds on the European Tour, where he finished second in Abu Dhabi and won in Dubai.
“I think each and every day I’m feeling a little more comfortable especially on the greens,” McIlroy said. “Obviously we played in the morning so we got the best of the greens and easier to trust the lines you pick for yourself but happy with how I putted today and putt like that over the weekend I’ll have a chance.”
This is McIlroy’s final start before the Masters in three weeks. He’ll arrive at Augusta National trying to complete the career Grand Slam and win his third straight major championship. Like in the opening round, McIlroy again got off to a slow start on Friday. He made just two birdies over his first nine holes (the back nine at Bay Hill) and had to save par from bunkers three times. He got things rolling, however, with a birdie from 18 feet on the par-3 second and rattled off four in a row after that.
“At that point, it feels pretty easy,” McIlroy said. “You can sort of feel the momentum building.” Which is exactly what he is looking for heading into the year’s first major.
Source: Brian Wacker – PGA Tour
