Friday 1 July 2016 21:47, UK
Rory McIlroy admitted he was still not comfortable with his swing despite surging into a share of the halfway lead at the Open de France after a superb 66.
McIlroy has made some subtle changes to his swing in recent weeks and continued to describe it as a "work in progress" after making six birdies and just one bogey at the last on the second day at Le Golf National.
The world No 4 backed up his solid long game with some assured putting as he reached the halfway stage at five under par, although he insisted he is likely to remain more focused on his swing than his score over the weekend.
"The swing is good, but it doesn't feel very natural at the minute. It's quite mechanical and there's a lot going on in terms of what I'm trying to do," said McIlroy. "But it feels good. It's in a good groove and I'm concentrating a lot on it. I feel like if I set myself up well with alignment and everything.
"If I make a good swing, it goes where it should. So that's a positive and hopefully I can continue to do that over the next couple of days. If I focus on what I need to do in my golf swing, then hopefully the rest will take care of itself.
"I will hit some good shots and hopefully take advantage of some of the opportunities that I give myself. If I make good swings, I'll play well and hopefully have chances for birdies and that's what I'm really concentrating on.
"Today was a good day. I kept the ball in play, I drove it well, hit fairways and hit a lot of greens - sort of what you need to do around this golf course. I felt like I putted nicely, still a couple of putts that didn't quite drop but it felt good out there. I need two more days like that to have a chance to win, but I've put myself in a good position.
"In a way it's nice to go into contention and not really be thinking about the result. It's a nice thing to have to just be thinking about your swing and thinking about what you need to do here to obviously get the ball close to the hole out there.
"As I said, it's a work-in-progress and it doesn't feel natural. It doesn't feel very fluid at the minute, but the more I do it, the more - to use a Tiger term - the more reps I get, the more hopefully it will start to feel a bit more natural."
McIlroy opted to play in the 100th edition of the Open de France rather than travel to Firestone Country Club for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in order to have better preparation for the 145th Open at Royal Troon in a fortnight.
"It's ideal, especially the little bit of breeze we have here," he added. "The course isn't as firm as I thought it might be but obviously there's been quite a bit of rain over the last few weeks. It's great preparation, last two rounds in contention in tricky conditions, I can't really ask for much more than that."
