Rory McIlroy admits that he must rule out the silly mistakes after mixing 15 birdies with seven bogeys and two double bogeys in the first two rounds of the ZOZO Championship in Los Angeles.

The world No 4 is tied for 57th on four-under after following a 73 with a 67 and knows he should be contending for the lead but for his mistakes at Sherwood Country Club

Scores

"So I've made 15 birdies in the first two days, which usually would put you right up at the top of the leaderboard," lamented McIlroy, who has made more birdies than anyone in the field bar South Africa's Dylan Frittelli. "I’ve just made too many mistakes.

“It was the same story last week, sort of the same story at Winged Foot. Just one of these stretches where the good stuff's there, but the bad stuff is sort of taking away from the fact that I'm hitting good shots and making birdies. 

"So if I can just get rid of that and, you know, maybe be a little more conservative when I miss fairways and not try to take too much on. But that's sort of been the downfall of late because the good play is in there, it's just being overshadowed by the mistakes, I guess."

He had hoped to contend for his first win in almost a year but even in his quest to find some sort of competitive edge with less than three weeks to go to the Masters, the mistakes are undermining the confidence he gleans from the good shots. 

"It's hard because there's a lot of both in there," said McIlroy, who lies ten strokes behind Justin Thomas, who shot a brace of 65's to lead by one stroke from Lanto Griffin and Frittelli on 14-under. 

"There's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad. So I'm happy with the good, I'm happy with the fact that I'm making birdies and I'm converting the chances I'm giving myself, but it's just when I get it out of position, I'm not -- I'm not playing smart and I'm maybe just taking too much on at times and then, you know, compounding errors. 

"It sort of happened yesterday with a couple doubles coming in. That's just the stuff I need to tidy up. If I can tidy that up, I'm playing well enough to know that I can go out and make five six seven birdies a round.

“You know when you have that in there, it's just a matter of the holes where you're not looking at making birdie is okay, how can I get out of here with a par and just move on."

As for breaking his wedge on the 18th in Friday, he admitted his umpteenth miss to the right was the straw that broke the camel's back and that more clubs would be broken in the future.

Asked if it was cathartic for him, he said: "A little bit. It's certainly not the first club I've broken and it certainly won't be the last. Sometimes you just -- you know, I said yesterday as well, I missed so many shots to the right, if that wedge shot on 18 had missed 20 yards left, I still would have had that club in my bag, I wouldn't have snapped it.

“It was just one shot too many to the right. Even if that thing had missed six feet to the right, that club was probably getting broken. Yeah, it was just one of those things.”

2020 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD

• (7th of 50 events in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season)

• Thousand Oaks, California October 22-25, 2020

• FedExCup Points: 500 (winner)

• Sherwood Country Club Par/Yards: 36-36--72/7,073

• Purse: $8,000,000/$1,440,000

Second-Round Notes -- Friday, October 23, 2020

Weather: Mostly Cloudy. High of 69. Wind S/SW 7-12 mph.

Second-Round Leaderboard

• Justin Thomas 65-65--130 (-14)

• Dylan Frittelli 66-65--131 (-13)

• Lanto Griffin 66-65--131 (-13)

• Patrick Cantlay 67-65--132 (-12)

• Scottie Scheffler 67-65--132 (-12)

Things to Know

• Seeking his 14th PGA TOUR victory, Justin Thomas holds the 36-hole lead/co-lead for the 11th time in his PGA TOUR career

• Dylan Frittelli carded eight birdies in the second round, moving up two positions on the leaderboard from T4 to 2nd

• Lanto Griffin's 36-hole score marks the lowest of his PGA TOUR career

• Tiger Woods is T66 after carding a 6-under 66 in response to his opening-round 76; ties the largest improvement between R1 and R2 in his PGA TOUR career

• Recording 12 birdies, Richy Werenski (T6) broke his career record for most birdies in a round on the PGA TOUR by three (9/2020 3M Open) and ties the course record at Sherwood (61)

• With 18 bogey-free rounds, the R2 scoring average of 67.87 sets a new record for low scoring average at Sherwood Country Club; previously 69.27 (2002 Hero World Challenge)