Rory McIlroy immediately lent his support to Shane Lowry at The Open despite his own personal disappointment. McIlroy will be cheering on his Paris Olympics team-mate to win his second Claret Jug this weekend after missing the cut himself.
Still hurting from failing to win the US Open last month, despite a solid performance at the Scottish Open since then, McIlroy felt his game was in “really good shape” heading to Royal Troon.
But the Northern Irishman went round in 79 on Thursday to leave himself seven-over par after managing only a single birdie. That left him coming into day two scrapping to make the cut.
And McIlroy’s hopes of making the weekend took a body blow early into his second round with a run of bogey, double bogey and then back-to-back bogeys between the third and sixth holes.
Visibly frustrated after that, the four-time major champion regained some composure as the winds calmed down into the evening in South Ayrshire and made two birdies on the back nine to bring down his day-two score to four-over.
But McIlroy still ended 11-over overall, missing the cut by five shots. Now he’s eager to see Irishman Lowry – the Open champion in 2019 – rule supreme on Sunday.
Lowry currently leads by two shots on seven-under and McIlroy said: “I can’t wait to watch this weekend. He relishes these conditions. He gets more up for this than anything else. I’m looking forward to cheering him on and him hopefully getting his second Jug.”
McIlroy added of his own performance to Sky Sports Golf: “I’ve had 14 holes to deal with everything I’ve been feeling. After the eight on four I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be here for the weekend.
“That four-hole stretch at the start of the round was unfortunate in the worst of the wind. The wind died down a little bit for us on the back nine and it was a lot more manageable for me.
“Over the course of the two days, the conditions got the better of me. I didn’t adapt to the strong wind. Especially on the back nine yesterday. And today going out with how strong and gusty it was.
“That was the story of the week. Even at Augusta I felt like the conditions on the Friday afternoon got the better of me. It was super windy. Here again. The scoring was super low at the PGA. I just couldn’t keep up with Xander [Schauffele] and Bryson [DeChambeau] and then obviously the US Open was the big one.
“I had such a great opportunity and let it slip through my fingers. I just have to remind myself that I am close. You just have to keep giving yourself chances. I said at the US Open last year I’d go through 100 Sundays to get my hands on another major.
“These disappointing Sundays are racking up but I’d much rather have disappointing Sundays than be going home on a Friday night. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing.
“The windy conditions at two of the majors this year got the better of me. That’s something I’m maybe going to have to address going forward.”
McIlroy now turns his attention to the Olympics in Paris at Le Golf National. He will represent Ireland alongside Lowry from August 1-4.
Rory will have to wait until March 2025 to end his 10-year drought at major championships, when the Players Championship takes place at the famous TPC Sawgrass.
