Rory McIlroy magic fires him into the lead at WGC-Mexico Championship

It was Rory McIlroy with a hole-out eagle from the fairway Friday.

He had one thing in common with McIlroy.

Just getting healthy and back to competition has been far more on his mind.

Only it was his stomach, not his ribs.

“Overall it was great”, said McIlroy. Westwood bogeyed his last two holes to create the six-way tie.

“I think the more rounds you play out here, the more you can kind of get dialed in to trusting your numbers in this altitude”, said Spieth after his record-setting round.

Fortunately, Mickelson’s brother Tim was in the crowd who is not only a decent player but is a former golf college coach turned player manager, and is in Mexico with client, Jon Rahm. At his next stop he was right again off the tee, took a drop and made what most would consider a good bogey. “So it was good”.

“The rib is fine”, said McIlroy at the co-sanctioned PGA and European Tour event.

“Hopefully now that I’ve got that out of my system today and in the final group, hopefully that will be a little bit easier [Sunday]”.

This looked like a week in which Spieth would just be happy to make it through 72 holes without having a bad round, then ramp up his preparations for the Masters starting on April 6. “I didn’t get much sleep; I was pretty much up from three o’clock” The Guardian quoted him as saying.

In his return to golf after seven weeks, he didn’t look to be in the best of shape Thursday at the Mexico Championship.

Westwood was two clear with two to play, but the devilishly tricky nature of the Chapultepec Golf Club saw him finish with two bogeys to tie the lead. After a winter break, he lost to Graeme Storm in a playoff in South Africa. “I feel like someone’s playing goalie up by the hole”. And he never felt he was playing a WGC event in Miami, no matter how much Spanish he heard in the gallery. “I figured it would be in or just short of the bunker but we couldn’t find it”.

Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson – if that sounds like a dream foursome or your fantasy team lineup you’re probably not alone. McIlroy went out with a two-shot advantage and after a 70 now has a two-shot deficit. They had played together Saturday in Florida. Back-to-back 66s, though, have put the Kentucky man atop the leaderboard at 12 under par.

While he wasn’t exactly chopping his ball around the course, he wasn’t the fluid, explosive player who’s been No. 1 and won four majors.