Rory McIlroy grew up playing in the winds of Northern Ireland, but even to those born in it, links golf can be a cruel mistress. And it is never crueler than at the Open Championship.
This week, McIlory sought to move on from the closest he had come to winning one in the last decade in the most recent major last month at the U.S. Open. But after an opening round 78, his highest opening round in a major in five years, he needed to grind just to make the cut.
His quest to avoid missing the weekend started ominously as he began his round moving in the wrong direction with two pars and then a bogey at the 3rd. Then he pulled his tee shot at the par-5 4th hole, leaving his ball in the thick hay.
NBC analyst Curt Byrum, following McIlroy’s group, called it the worst lie he’d seen all week.
“If he hits it 100 yards, he’s done really well,” Byrum said.
His ball only went about five yards, as estimated by play-by-play man Dan Hicks, but that may have been generous.
McIlroy’s near-whiff didn’t even clear the steep slope the four-time major winner was on and he had to hack out once again, this time reaching the fairway. But his approach was left of the green, leaving him short-sided to the pin, back in the fescue.
Now playing his fifth shot, the hole really started getting away from him as he had a big tuft of grass behind him. His bump and run carried too much steam and went over the green and into a pot bunker.
Thankfully, unlike others this week, McIlroy had a play at the hole and blasted his sixth shot onto the green, finally, leaving him just four feet for a double. But as these things go, it got worse before it got better. McIlory power-lipped the putt on the high side and tapped-in for a disastrous triple.
McIlroy was already well outside the cut line after a 79 on Day 1, but the triple all but guaranteed the 2014 Open champion would be heading home early this week. This will mark his first missed cut at the Open since he missed the weekend in his home country of Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush in 2019.
