Rory McIlroy going back to the drawing board after missing PGA cut
By Keith Jackson
Last Updated: 30/07/16 12:16pm
Rory McIlroy lambasted himself for "pathetic" putting after missing the cut in a major for the second time this season at the PGA Championship.
McIlroy faced a battle to make the weekend after using 35 putts and failing to make a single birdie in his opening 74, although he dug deep and came to the last hole thinking he needed a birdie when a par would have extended his tournament.
But after a perfect drive down the 18th, he carved his five-iron second into a dreadful lie in the right rough and chunked his first chip, his ball rolling back down the steep slope, before his second effort cleared the bank but failed to reach the putting surface.
The world No 4 looked disconsolate when his chip for par veered left of the hole, and he tapped in for a bogey six and trudged off to sign for a 69 - three over for the tournament and one too many to make the cut.
"Rory is going to have to reassess how he's going to go about his game and maybe change a couple of things."
Paul McGinley
His second round had started encouragingly as he finally got a birdie putt to drop from 15 feet at the fourth, and a superb approach to three feet set up another at six before he pulled his tee shot to the short ninth into the left bunker and could not get up and down.
The two-time champion got back on track when his approach to 11 almost spun back into the cup, but he then missed from five feet for par at 13 and squandered excellent birdie chances over the next three holes before holing his longest putt of the week from 35 feet at the 17th.
"Tee to green was good, but it was just pathetic when I got onto the green," said McIlroy. "I thought I'd make the cut when I birdied the fourth, at least got my first birdie of the week, and kept going from there. I played well, hit a lot of fairways and greens, but I just need to do a lot of work.
"I was planning on taking two weeks off and then practising the week before The Barclays. But I'll still take two weeks off from tournaments, and I need to do something. Tee to green is good, I just need to figure out what to do on the greens and I need to have a long hard think about that.
"Putting let me down at Merion, I think I missed the cut there, too. It was the same at Oakmont, and then putting let me down here again. My tee to green game, there's not much wrong with that - it's pretty solid. I'm driving the ball really and hitting good iron shots.
"I think if you had given anyone else in this field my tee shots this week, they would have been up near the top of the leaderboard. That just shows you how bad I was around the greens.
Leaderboard
<a href='http://www.skysports.com/golf/pga-championship/leaderboard' target='_blank' class='instorylink'>PGA Championship</a>
"I've hit the ball really well this week and I'm walking away not playing the weekend. It's really disheartening. As I said, I need to go back to the drawing board and see where we go from here."
