JOHNS CREEK, GA. (AP) - After being assured he could do no additional damage, Rory McIlroy played Friday in the second round of the PGA Championship with a heavily taped right wrist.
His chances of winning a second major title took a major hit when he made a triple bogey at the 17th.
The U.S. Open champion was injured taking an ill-advised swing in the opening round at Atlanta Athletic Club, striking his ball against a thick tree root.
McIlroy shot an even-par 70 in the opening round, then hustled off to get an MRI, which showed a strained tendon.
Cornell Driessen, a physical therapist on the European Tour, said the MRI showed not even a partial tear of the tendons and there was no danger of McIlroy injuring the wrist more seriously by continuing to play.
That was good enough for the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland, though he did have a shorter-than-usual warmup session.
Starting on the back side, McIlroy made a couple of early birdies and was 1 under for the day and the tournament until he plunked one in the water at the par-3 17th. He wound up three-putting for a triple bogey that sent him around the turn with a 2-over 37.
McIlroy showed up on the range about a half hour before his morning tee time, cutting in half his typical routine. He hit shots for 15 minutes before heading to the putting green, followed by about two dozen media.
“It’s the last major of the year,” McIlroy said Thursday evening. “I’ve got, what, six or seven months to the Masters. So I might as well try and play through the pain and get it over and done with.”
He was injured at the third hole after driving into the trees left of the fairway. Instead of punching back into the fairway, he decided to take a shot at the green, planning to drop his club as soon as he made contact. He held on to it a split-second too long, jamming his wrist and sending pain all the way up to his shoulder.
McIlroy held an ice compress against his wrist between shots Thursday, had it checked out by a physical therapist on the course, and played on with a hasty tape job.
On Friday, playing again in a group with two other major champions, Masters winner Charl Schwartzel and British Open winner Darren Clarke, McIlroy made a three-putt bogey at the opening hole.
He bounced back with his first birdie at the par-5 12th, hacking out of the rough and rolling in a 20-foot putt from just off the green. He made another birdie at the 16th.
But the triple bogey left him with a lot of work to do. McIlroy was nine strokes behind Steve Stricker, who opened with a 63 and teed off in the afternoon.
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