Rory McIlroy goes low again and leads by six at U.S. Open

Reporting from Bethesda, Md.

As he assessed the various missteps that contributed to his Masters meltdown two months ago, Rory McIlroy concluded he wasn’t greedy enough on the golf course.

“Just try to have a bit of an attitude, you know?” McIlroy explained Friday. “Even if you get four or five ahead of the field … you’re trying to get seven ahead, eight ahead. Ten ahead, whatever.”

OK, 10 ahead might be a reach. Not by much, though.

Keeping the accelerator pressed on a day ripe for birdies, McIlroy became the first U.S. Open entrant to reach 13 under par. Even with a double bogey at No. 18, a five-under-par 66 allowed him to rewrite the Open’s 36-hole scoring record.

And the lead? When McIlroy signed his scorecard, he was eight shots clear of anyone else. Though Y.E. Yang’s afternoon 69 trimmed the margin to six, it still was enough to match the record Tiger Woods set during his 2000 Open rout.

“It’s very near to the best I can play,” McIlroy said. “I just need to keep it going over the next couple of days. I’m halfway there, but there’s still a long way to go.”

McIlroy’s 11-under 131 total was one better than Ricky Barnes’ record, set two years ago at rainy Bethpage. Only one player has gone lower through two rounds of a major; Nick Faldo torched St. Andrews in 130 strokes at the 1990 British Open.

To put the 22-year-old’s lead into perspective, the other 71 golfers above the cut line at the end of a storm-interrupted day were separated by only eight strokes.

“It’s sort of a different kind of golf tournament,” said Yang, who chased down Woods to win the 2009 PGA Championship.

It’ll be tough to tackle McIlroy. Of the seven men in the last 40 years who have taken a lead of at least five shots to the weekend at a major, just one — Bobby Clampett at the 1982 British Open — failed to take the trophy home.

After Yang, there was another three-stroke gap to former Masters champion Zach Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker and Robert Garrigus. A 42-minute storm delay left play unfinished at sundown, with 21 golfers forced to return Saturday morning to finish their rounds.

After 35 near-flawless holes, McIlroy’s only mistake came at No. 18. From trampled-down rough, his approach took a sharp left and kicked off a steep greenside bank into the water. After chipping on, he couldn’t coax a seven-foot bogey save into the hole.

Too greedy?

“The lie was decent,” McIlroy said. “I was just trying to play out to the front right portion of the green, and I just got a little bit of grass caught between the clubface and the ball. The club turned over a bit.”

He had reached 13 under with a birdie one hole earlier, one deeper than the previous Open mark shared by Woods and Gil Morgan (1992). McIlroy set another record for fastest player to 10 under, doing so when he holed out for eagle at the par-four eighth.

“I don’t really know what to say,” McIlroy said. “I’ve put myself in a great position going into the weekend. But I know, more than probably anybody else, what can happen.”

Two months ago, McIlroy took a four-shot lead into Masters Sunday and unraveled with a back-nine 43. On Friday, though, that round seemed an awfully long time ago.

“Hopefully,” said Garrigus, nine shots back, “he doesn’t get too crazy on us.”

jshain@orlandosentinel.com