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Rory McIlroy admitted he is concerned about his form before next week’s US Open after missing the cut at the Canadian Open. The Masters champion shot a dismal second-round 78 on Friday, carding a quadruple bogey, a double and four other bogeys in an eight-over-par round that left him languishing 21 shots behind the halfway leader, Cameron Champ, who finished on 12 under.
It is the first time the world No 2 has missed the cut since the Open at Royal Troon last July. McIlroy’s round continued his troubled buildup to Oakmont having been forced to switch to a different driver after his previous model was deemed non-conforming in a random test on the eve of last month’s US PGA Championship, in which he finished joint-47th.
“Of course it concerns me. You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today,” McIlroy said on the PGA website. “Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t.
“Going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the missing piece off the tee. For me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn’t. Yeah, that’s a concern going into next week.”
McIlroy was already facing an uphill battle after shooting one over par on Thursday and his day began to unravel after taking an eight on the par-four fifth. That occurred after he fired his second shot out of bounds from the rough and was forced to take a further penalty after playing a provisional. He then missed the green with his fifth shot and needed three more to find the hole.
Things got worse from there with further bogeys at the eighth and 10th before he made a double bogey the 11th and then dropped more shots at the 13th and 17th. There was at least some relief with birdies on the 15th and at the last, but McIlroy is preparing for a “lot of practice” over the weekend.
He added: “I think there’s still learnings that you have to take from a day like today. Even though the last two days didn’t go the way I wanted them to, there’s still things I can take from it and still things I can learn. I’m going to have to do a lot of practice, a lot of work over the weekend at home and try to at least have a better idea of where my game is going into next week.”
English (US)