At Frys.com Open, Rory McIlroy still trying to get putter going

NAPA, Calif. – Rory McIlroy has taken to the stunning wine country here in Northern California.

His putter, however, is leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

While the world No. 3 was obligated to play this week – three years ago he was granted a release to play in a non-sanctioned event in Turkey in return for playing this event at least once in three years – he's thoroughly enjoyed his maiden voyage to Napa Valley.

Superb weather? Check. Fine food? Check. Great wine? Check. And he was moved to take a picture and post it to Twitter of Friday's sunrise, which was punctuated with a hot air balloon.

"You can see why everyone is so relaxed," McIlroy said. "Beautiful weather. A lot of stuff to do away from the golf course."

Maybe too much. The vineyards were calling McIlroy so he made a trek to the Opus One Winery to see how his favorite wine is made. Of course he did some wine tasting. As they say, when in Rome.

"Just trying to find a balance between not feeling too hung over when you tee it up the next day," McIlroy laughingly said.

Now, for his putting, that's another matter. As has been the case of late for the four-time major winner, his ball-striking is on point while his putter is leaving him agitated and on edge. In his first-round 68, he missed six putts inside 12 feet. In Friday's round of 71, he missed another bunch of putts that passed over the lips of cups instead of disappearing into the hole.

Through two rounds, he has 59 putts.

His work on the greens finally caught up with him and his ball-striking diminished late in the round. Nonetheless, at 5 under he is within striking range heading into the weekend and certainly has the firepower to go low even if his putter is a pop gun right now.

"It's a bit frustrating," McIlroy said of his putting. "I think it's mental more than anything else. Whenever you don't see anything go in, it makes it harder and harder each and every hole that goes by.

"Hopefully I'll find something on the putting green tonight and then hopefully I can get off to a good start in terms of holing putts tomorrow. Hopefully that can feed through and I get some momentum and go from there.

" … I don't expect to hole everything but I expect to hole more than I am right now."

He said the same thing after his first round when he played brilliantly from tee to green. Then again, he's been saying the same thing for some time now.

"It's sort of been like this since I've been back," said McIlroy, who returned to golf at the PGA Championship in August after missing two months because of an ankle injury. "I need to sort of figure it out a little bit."

However McIlroy leaves this week – satisfied with his effort or mulling what is wrong with his putter – he'll be glad he came. In addition to embracing all that is around him, he's got his first tournament of his 2015-16 Tour season under his belt.

"The last couple of years in the FedExCup I feel like I've always been playing catchup because I start the PGA Tour season at the end February when most guys are starting now," McIlroy said. "It's nice to get a couple events in before the turn of the year.

Hopefully when I get back to Florida I won't be feeling the pressure of trying to catch up to these guys. It's important to get a good start."

Especially if the first start is in Napa.

Now if he can just get that putter going.