Rory McIlroy misses Irish Open cut for fourth time in five years
Saturday 8 July 2017 09:44, UK
Rory McIlroy has vowed to go "back to the drawing board" after his Open preparations hit another setback with an early exit at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
McIlroy needed to shoot in the 60s to avoid missing the cut for the fourth time in five years in the event, and he gave himself a good chance to play another 36 holes when he reached two under for the round with five holes to play.
But he dropped his third shot of the day at the short sixth - his 15th - and he then came up short with his wedge approach to the eighth and took four more to get down, the resulting double-bogey six ending his chances of playing over the weekend.
The tournament host and defending champion looked a forlorn figure as he tapped in for par at the last to complete a disappointing 73 which left him at one over par, four outside the projected cut and in a tie for 120th.
McIlroy, whose season has been severely disrupted by two spells on the sidelines with a rib injury, was satisfied with his long game over the two days but he admitted he needs to put in a lot of work on his wedge play and his putting in particular as he looks to bounce back at next week's Scottish Open before heading to Royal Birkdale.
"I'm really disappointed. The last two times The Irish Open has been in Northern Ireland, not playing at the weekend, it's obviously not where I want to be," said the 28-year-old, whose putting troubles were evident at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago as he used three different putters over the four rounds.
"It's been a really frustrating year, and it just hasn't really went the way I wanted it to. It's been tough but I felt like I was playing well coming in here. I played a lot of links golf last week and I was shooting good scores. I was confident, but when I needed to play well and shoot the scores that I was shooting last week, it just wasn't quite there.
"So it's back to the drawing board and practice a bit and get ready for next week in Scotland. I haven't played as much as I would have liked this year, but I feel like I'm starting on a run of doing that. Next week in Scotland, then The Open, and I'm going to play a lot of events over the summer.
"But I really need to get my game in order if I want to challenge in them. So bit of practice over the weekend and hopefully I can find something and go with it over the next few weeks."
McIlroy will devote the bulk of his practice time to his short game after making a series of mistakes at Portstewart, but he remains confident that he can turn his form around ahead of the third major of the year.
"I don't feel like I'm that far away," he added. "It's a few putts dropping here or there, it's a few up-and-downs that I haven't been able to get the last couple of days. It's all that stuff that isn't so obvious and I need to do those things right and do the simple things right.
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"I can hit a five-iron from 220 yards and hit it in the middle of the green, but I can't get it up-and-down from 30 feet. So if I can do the simple things right, then it makes the game a lot easier. I just need to concentrate on that.
"I'm seeing really positive stuff in practice and I'm seeing positive stuff when I'm out playing. Then when I get into tournament situations, it's all there, but it's just about putting the pieces together, and I'm not able to put them together when I've been out on the golf course the last couple of days."
