Rory McIlroy ‘resigned’ at The Open as weather admission speaks volumes

Rory McIlroy has admitted he was “resigned” to missing the cut at The Open after playing just four holes of his second round at Royal Troon. The four-time major winner endured a miserable couple of days in Scotland as the wind wreaked havoc and finished 11 over-par thru 36 holes to crash out of the tournament before the weekend. McIlroy, 35, took a break from golf after capitulating in the final stages of the US Open in June.

He returned to action at the Scottish Open earlier this month and finished the tournament tied in fourth to give himself confidence heading into the final major of the year. But McIlroy was a shadow of himself at Royal Troon and ended the first day 13 shots off the lead on seven over-par after taking 78 strokes to get round. The Northern Irishman began day two in a similar manner as he tripled bogeyed the fourth. He improved later in the day but ended up missing the cut by four strokes.

And following his dismal showing in South Ayrshire, McIlroy explained: “Once I made the eight on the fourth hole that was it. After that I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation next week. “That was basically it. I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to shoot four or five under from there on in to make the cut. It was a pretty meaningless 14 holes after that, but at least I played okay.” And he added: “I didn’t adapt well at all on Thursday to the left-right wind on the back nine, and this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, it got the better of me and I felt pretty uncomfortable over a few shots.

“That four-hole stretch to start off was what cost me. I got off to the worst possible start being six over thru six, but then played the last 12 holes pretty well, bogey-free. “When the wind died down a bit and it became at least manageable for me I started to play better, I hit some good shots. I played the last 12 in a couple under par and felt more comfortable over my shots.

“When the wind gets that strong and you haven’t played in wind like that for quite a while sometimes it’s just hard to adapt. “I’ll look back at the two majors where I didn’t play my best [this year], both here and the Masters. The wind got the better of me on the Friday at Augusta and the wind got the better of me the last two days here.”