GRAEME McDOWELL AND Shane Lowry have both given their backing to Rory McIlroy, after the world number one withdrew from the Honda Classic during the second round.

The 23-year-old initially said he was ‘in a bad place mentally’ at Palm Beach and quit the tournament after shooting a seven-over in his first eight holes on Friday.

It later transpired that the Holywood player was being troubled by a wisdom tooth, but he still drew criticism for pulling out of a tournament for the first time in his career.

McIlroy has failed to make Saturday in all three of his 2013 tournaments so far, having missed the cut in Abu Dhabi and been knocked out of the Accenture Match Play Championship in the first round by Lowry.

“I’m sure he knows what he needs to do. Only he knows where he’s at in his own mind. We all experience moments of this in our career,” said McDowell.

“This is only a mini-crisis. I look at the Match Play as a complete anomaly. He’s missed two cuts, big deal. There’s a lot of golf left.”

Offaly’s Lowry went one further, predicting another Major for the recent Nike recruit. He tweeted: “Gonna put this out there. Rory will win the masters.”

McIlroy had released a statement late on Friday, apologising for his failure to keep going.

“I sincerely apologise to the Honda Classic and PGA Tour for my sudden withdrawal.

“I have been suffering with a sore wisdom tooth, which is due to come out in the near future. It began bothering me again last night, so I relieved it with [painkiller] Advil.

“It was very painful again this morning, and I was simply unable to concentrate. It was really bothering me and had begun to affect my playing partners.”

Elwood commends ‘nervy’ Connacht after scrappy win >