Rory McIlroy says he “can’t wait” to watch Shane Lowry bid for his second Claret Jug this weekend and turned his thoughts to a vacation and the Olympic Games after turning in the second-worst major performance of his major career at Royal Troon.
Any faint hope he entertained of making the cut evaporated when he dropped six shots in “a horrible” four-hole stretch from the third before he played the last 12 in a “meaningless” two-under-par.
He added a 76 to his opening 78 and missed the cut by five shots on 11-over 153 — the second-highest 36-hole total of his 63-major career — to extend his winless streak to 10 years.
“Once I made the eight on the fourth hole, that was it,” he said after a day when he missed the sixth green by 30 yards with a wedge. “Twenty-two holes into the event and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation next week.”
He added: “When I look back on the two majors that I didn’t play my best at, here and the Masters, the wind got the better of me on Friday at Augusta, and then the wind got the better of me the last two days here.
“I didn’t adapt well at all to that left-to-right wind yesterday on the back nine, and then this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, as I said, it got the better of me, and I felt pretty uncomfortable over a few shots.”
He pointed out that there is still a lot to play for this season, including his next start in the Olympic Games in Paris as well as the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup.
But he’s also looking forward to seeing pal Lowry try to win his second Claret Jug
“Yeah, I can’t wait to watch this weekend,” he said. “He’s so creative. I think even just watching the coverage the last couple of days, that little sort of squeezy cut that he can hit, especially going out in that front nine, is going to be really helpful to him.
“Yeah, look, he relishes these conditions. He loves playing these conditions. The Open Championship is his favourite tournament in the world. He gets more up for this than anything else. I’m looking forward to cheering him on and hopefully him getting his second jug.”
McIlroy went out in the worst of the wind in mid-afternoon and any faint hope he entertained of making the cut evaporated when he dropped six shots in a four-hole stretch from the third.
A triple bogey eight at the fourth, where he moved his ball just a few feet in the left rough, then missed the green in four and scuttled his recovery through the green into a bunker, looked likely to be the low point of his day.
But he reached an even lower ebb at the par-five sixth where he had 93 yards for his third shot and missed the green by almost 50 yards, pulling it left onto a dune.
Out in six-over 42, he salvaged some pride by following four straight pars from the 10th with his first birdie in 28 holes as he holed a greenside bunker shot at the 14th.
He’d make another birdie at the par-five 16th, where he pushed a short iron into a bunker and tossed it high into the air, hitting himself on the chin with the butt of the club.
As for the rest of the Irish, Tom McKibbin made it two cuts from two majors starts, adding a 72 to his opening 73 to sit alongside Pádraig Harrington on three-over.
Aiming now to move up the leaderboard, he said: “I’d like to try to shoot an under-par round. That would be quite nice. To shoot under-par at a major would be pretty cool. That would be my goal for the next couple of rounds.”
Harrington overcame an ice-cold putter and renewed his belief he can still compete with the young guns just a week after missing the cut by four shots in the Scottish Open.
“I could easily be well under par here — two, three under par, four under par,” the Dubliner (52) said after rounds of 72 and 73 did little justice to his play.
“So I’m feeling a lot better this week. I’ll be back. I’m not retiring yet!”
Darren Clarke also showed he can still compete on links terrain, firing a level par 71 to finish on six over.
Meanwhile, Galway amateur Liam Nolan was far from downcast after rounds of 78 and 77 left him on 13 over on his major debut.
“Yeah, incredible,” he said. “It was really tough conditions out there. So, you know, a lot to learn from my first major and I’ll be back. There is a lot to take away from it.”