Rory McIlroy has a full weekend to pack for the US Open after enduring one of the most difficult days of his career at the Canadian Open on Friday.
The Masters champion shot an eight-over second round to miss the cut, finishing 149th on nine-over par in the standings in Toronto, with the low point being a quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-four fifth.
He shot a 1-over 71 on Thursday and started steadily enough with four straight pars in round two before disaster struck. Five more bogeys were to follow, with a birdie on 15 only offering a brief moment of relief.
McIlroy struggled with a new driver, hitting only four of 14 fairways in regulation. He ranked near the bottom of the field in strokes gained putting, as well.
But it’s the driver that will inevitably become a talking point as he heads to Oakmont Country Club in Texas for the third major of the goling calendar.
Last month at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, McIlroy ignored the media entirely due to his anger that his driver had been deemed non-compliant through random testing.
Rory McIlroy had one of the toughest days of his career in round two of the Canadian Open
McIlroy hit an eight-over second round, finished 149th on +9 for the tournament in Toronto
Scottie Scheffler’s had been too, but McIlroy was angry that his name had come out first.
Speaking this week before the Canadian Open began, McIlroy said: ”I was a little p***** off because I knew that Scottie’s driver had failed on Monday, but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential.
‘Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it. Again, I didn’t want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because there’s a lot of people that I’m trying to protect.’
McIlroy finished tied 47th at the PGA at Quail Hollow, a course he had won on four times before. Going into that tournament, it seemed to be the ideal course for McIlroy to play on in an attempt to build on the Masters success that saw him become only the sixth man in the history of golf with win the Grand Slam.
But since conquering Augusta, the 36-year-old McIlroy has struggled to recapture the level of motivation he has had before.
‘I would certainly say that the last few weeks—I’ve had a couple of weeks off—and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours everyday is maybe a little tougher than it used to be,’ the Northern Irishman admitted.
‘You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards and it happens, sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.’
