Rory McIlroy‘s wait for another Major continued at The 152nd Open Championship, as he struggled yet again at Royal Troon, carding rounds of 78 and 75 to finish at 11-over-par.
One of the big names to miss the cut, it will now be over a decade since his last Major scalp, the 2014 PGA Championship, with the 11-over-par total five shots back of the six-over-par cutline.
“I think once I made the eight on the fourth hole, that was it. 22 holes into the event and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation next week. Yeah, that was basically it. I mean, I knew from then I’d sort of resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to shoot, four, or five, under-par”.
Realistically, the damage was done on the Thursday for McIlroy, who carded just one birdie, four bogeys and two doubles in a seven-over-par round of 78 that left him well down the leaderboard.
Needing a hot start on Friday, he parred the opening two holes, but a bogey at the third was followed by a scrappy triple bogey that included leaving a shot in the thick rough. Well outside the cutline, another bogey at the fifth was then compounded by another at the sixth, with McIlroy hitting a huge hook from 90-yards in the process.
McIlroy plays his shot at the sixth
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“Obviously I got off to the worst start possible today, being six-over through six. But then played the last 12 holes pretty well, bogey-free. If I need to remember something about this week, it’ll be the last few holes that I played. You know, when I look back on the two Majors that I didn’t play my best at, here and the Masters, the wind got the better of me on Friday at Augusta, and then the wind got the better of me the last two days here.
“I didn’t adapt well at all to that left-to-right wind yesterday on the back nine, and then this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, as I said, it got the better of me, and I felt pretty uncomfortable over a few shots”.
Going into the weekend, it’s McIlroy’s close friend, Shane Lowry, who leads by two strokes at seven-under-par. The two claimed the Zurich Classic Of New Orleans back in April and, with two rounds remaining, he is hoping his good buddy can get over the line and win The Open once again.
“I can’t wait to watch this weekend. He’s so creative. I think even…
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