FOR THE FOURTH time in five years, Rory McIlroy has crashed out of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open before the weekend as his title defence ended at the halfway stage earlier.
The world number four’s love-hate relationship with this tournament continued at Portstewart this week as rounds of 72 and 73 saw him miss the cut by five shots.
McIlroy was one-under par for his round with two holes to play but a double-bogey six on the 17th ended any chance of him playing all four days, as he eventually signed for a one-over par 73.
The Northern Irishman struggled tee-to-green, hitting only half of the 14 fairways, and for a second day running took 33 putts on the greens.
“Yeah, look, I’m really disappointed,” he said.
“The last two times the Irish Open has been in Northern Ireland, not playing at the weekend, it’s obviously not where I want to be.
“It’s been a really frustrating year. Just hasn’t really went the way I wanted it to. And yeah, it’s been tough but I felt like I was playing well coming in here. I played a lot of links golf last week. I was shooting good scores. I was confident. Just when I needed to play well and shoot the scores that I was shooting last week, it just wasn’t quite there.
“So just back to the drawing board and practise a bit and get ready for next week in Scotland.”
He added that his performance at Portstewart this week is the combination of a lack of competitive golf following an injury layoff and the pressures involved with playing, and hosting, a home tournament.
He said: “I think it’s a combination of both. Yeah, I haven’t played as much as I would have liked this year. Yeah, I think that, as well as just — yeah, I need to play more. I feel like I’m starting on a run of doing that. I’m make next week in Scotland, The Open. I’m going to play a lot of events over the summer.
“But I really need to get my game in order if I want to challenge in them. So bit of practise over the weekend and hopefully I can find something and go with it over the next few weeks.
“I don’t feel like I’m that far away. I really don’t. It’s a little — a few putts dropping here or there. It’s a few up-and-downs that I haven’t been able to get the last couple of days. It’s all that stuff that isn’t so obvious.
“If I can do those things right and do the simple things right, I think that’s — I can hit a 5-iron from 220 yards and hit it in the middle of the green, but I can’t get it up-and-down from 30 feet. So if I can do the simple things right, then it makes the game a lot easier. I just need to concentrate on that.”
Benjamin Hebert and Daniel Im are the overnight leaders heading into the weekend after both shot rounds of 67 on Friday, with Jon Rahm sitting one adrift on 12-under par.
Paul Dunne, meanwhile, leads the Irish challenge and is certainly the in-form player after another low round which saw him card five birdies.
The Wicklow native is eight-under overall and is in a tie for 12th while Pádraig Harrington is one shot back.
Shane Lowry finished with back-to-back bogeys as he dropped back to five-under par while Graeme McDowell missed the cut on two-under par.
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He made a tit of himself again recently getting into a twitter spat with some other ex pro.No need to engage but he had to boast about his earnings like a spoiled little kid to put down the other guy.
I don’t get to see much golf anymore with not having SKY but i don’t miss watching Rory as i could never warm to his personality (or lack thereof).
@mark kenny: to be fair was Rory around before sky? I like the man the Irish Open would be nothing without him he has brought some great name this year.. been injured a lot but sooner or later he will win another major.
@Irishoversea: I agree with you think there’s a bit of begrudging going on with mark there
@Jamie: also a lot people base him on the Olympics but people need to google his u l and understand that his catholic uncle was killed
@Irishoversea: didn’t mean to send that
@Irishoversea: A lot of people base they’re opinions on the Olympics. But people need to google his uncle who was a catholic killed troubles. I can understand why he didn’t want to get drawn into that
You could nearly copy and paste McIlroy’s comments after each poor round this year. Of which there have been many.
His game seems to fall off a cliff when he’s not on form. Even though is a relatively strong field, there is no way that a player of McIlroy’s ability should be missing the cut an Irish Open. Something is up
@Blarneykite: ah stop will ya
When he won the Irish Open last year he donated his winner’s purse of €666,000 to charity, every penny of it. He said that meant more to him than winning the trophy.
@Mark DeFriest: He’s still a bellend
@Cathal:
I bet everyone’s a bellend to a bellend.
This should be his bread and butter , his heads not in it by the looks of things. Not worthy of being ranked top 20 never mind 3rd
@ryan o sullivan: we all know where his head is
Looked like he couldn’t be bothered yesterday
Toss€r
He’s missed 4 out of the last 5 cuts at the Irish open so not exactly surprising
Once you get involved with a woman you’re career is fukd
Delighted up his malacky
Spoilt rich Brit
Hold on tiger I’ll be with you soon
@Thaddius T Sawballs: he’s hardly spoilt, he worked harder than you could
Imagine to be in the position he’s in
Yeah he’s rich, don’t hate it unbecoming
Hes northern Irish not British
Tigers done
@sean: “I feel more British than Irish” – Rory McIlroy
@Cathal:
Big effin deal.
@sean: why didn’t he put on the Irish Jersey for the Olympics???
Oh ya he was afraid of zits
That’s some spotty teen with a bad set of golf. Clubs beating the shit out of him
Totally interested in money
Totally not interested in Ireland
West Brit,
Don’t worry tiger he ll be with you soon
Poor Rory. Anyway, it was a great today.
I shot a 74 there last year. What’s his problem?
He wouldn’t win the Gross at the monthly medal.
@John Tobin: he’s just a tosser I know better club golfers than him, too much talk & no action, more like 50th or 60th in the world, full of excuses