Shades of Masters woe as Rory McIlroy crashes out

IT WON’T go down as a vintage week for Rory McIlroy. First, the world No 1 found himself being pilloried for a club-throwing incident here. Then, after going into freefall for the first time since his Masters collapse last year, he spectacularly crashed out of the BMW PGA Championship.

It was the second event in a row that he’d missed the halfway cut, the first time that’s happened to him in two years. Earlier in the year he hardly hit a bad shot; now his game is decidedly scrappy. It’s a worrying time for the 23-year-old less than three weeks before his US Open title defence in California.

“I think I may have taken my eye off the ball a little bit,” admitted McIlroy after signing for a 79 and a nine-over total of 153, missing the cut in the European Tour’s showpiece event by eight shots. “I need to get back working hard and trying to get it [his game] back to the level that it was leading into The Masters.

“I feel like I’ve put the work in, but maybe I need to be more specific. I’ll just have to think long and hard about it tonight, have a good chat with my team and make sure I’m ready for the next few events.”

First up is next week’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village then the Ulsterman has a week off before heading for the Olympic Club in San Francisco to defend the US Open title he won by a spectacular eight shots last year.

“No, it’s not,” replied McIlroy when it was suggested that a second successive missed cut – he also made a premature early exit from The Players Championship at Sawgrass a fortnight ago – wasn’t exactly the best preparation for the second major of the season.

“I’m looking forward to getting back over to the States and playing there and getting ready for that,” he continued. “I’ve got a big event coming up next week at the Memorial and I’ve got five days to put some hard practice in and get my game ready for that.”

While McIlroy’s career so far has mainly been filled with memorable moments, it has also been sprinkled with the occasional nightmare. He followed an opening 63 in The Open at St Andrews two years ago with an 80, the same score he signed for in The Masters last year, when he blew a four-shot lead on the last day. He was heading for another 80 yesterday as the wheels came off around the turn on the West Course.

He was one-under after seven holes and one-over for the tournament. But a double-bogey 6 at the eighth sparked a remarkable collapse. In the space of just eight holes, nine shots were spilled. In the end, it took a birdie-4 at the last to salvage a smidgen of pride.

“I got off to another good start but I can’t seem to get anything going in the stretch around the middle of the course,” he reflected. “Everything wasn’t really on song this week and I’m going to have to work hard over the weekend.

“I got here on Monday and hit the ball very well. But I just feel that I’ve maybe lacked competitive rounds lately. I took a couple of weeks off after The Masters then played great at Quail Hollow [losing in a play-off to Rickie Fowler]. I then only played two days at The Players and had another week off before here. So I’m looking forward to hopefully playing four rounds again in the States next week.”

Apart from 2009, when he finished fifth, McIlroy doesn’t have a good track record at Wentworth, though, in fairness, this is the first time he’s missed the cut here. He’s publicly declared a dislike for Sawgrass so is there a chance that this event could be dropped from his schedule in the future? He didn’t provide a straight answer but seemed to suggest he would continue to support the biggest event on the European Tour calendar.

“No matter if you like a golf course or not, you still want to win big events like this,” he said. “I do have the choice [about playing in certain events] and I decided to come here because I want to support the European Tour.”

As well as knocking his confidence, McIlroy’s premature departure from the Surrey venue has also opened the door for Luke Donald to topple the Ulsterman as world No 1 tomorrow night. Donald only needs to finish in the top eight to regain that mantle and is well on course, having nestled himself in behind halfway leader James Morrison on the back of a second successive 68.

Earlier in the day, Donald spoke openly when he was asked if McIlroy had still to learn how to grind out scores on courses that he didn’t necessarily like. “I’m not sure how much Rory has to learn,” he said. “I think for him it’s more just managing the heavy expectations on him more than anything. He obviously has an abundance of confidence and when he gets a sniff of the lead, as he did at the US Open last year, he handled it beautifully.

“I’m sure he’ll learn when to be aggressive, when to kind of lay back a little bit and how to manage courses a bit better. There are courses I don’t like to play and I miss them off my schedule. But the more he goes out here the better he’ll figure it out.”