Another player attempting to look at the positives after a disappointing week at the European Tour’s Scottish Open is world No. 4 Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut by two strokes after a 74-71 start in his tournament defense.
Despite missing the cut in three of the last four events he’s entered (MC: U.S. Open, Irish Open, and Scottish Open), there was one big positive for the former world No. 1: extra on-course practice time.
McIlroy went straight from the Scottish Open to the Open Championship site at Royal Birkdale, getting in practice rounds on both Saturday and Sunday.
Bullets
- Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy kept up his recent struggles, missing the cut at the Scottish Open, an event he won just last year. McIlroy was +1 after his first two rounds, two back of the cut line.
- It was a second straight missed cut for McIlroy, who also failed to reach the weekend the previous week at the DDF Irish Open. They make up the last two tournaments of a disappointing stretch of play, as his three prior starts were a T17 at The Travelers Championship, a missed cut at the US Open, and a T35 at THE PLAYERS Championship. McIlroy has struggled especially badly on the greens since his return from a painful rib injury, an injury he had re-aggravated at THE PLAYERS.
- According to McIlroy, his big focus over the weekend was on alignment and his wedge game. He said that he needed to stop some bad habits that occurred while playing in windy conditions.
- McIlroy finished T5 at last year’s Open Championship, his first attempt at the PGA’s third major of the year after winning the 2014 edition.
Quotable
“If I had been out there shooting 77s and 78s, I’d be really worried, but I’m not. I shot 1 under on Friday. It could have been a little better, but it’s not far away. It’s all around even par, but even par these days is not good enough. I feel like the line between shooting these scores of even par and getting to 4, 5, 6 under par in a day, the margins are so fine. So it’s about staying patient and working on the right things.”
–Rory McIlroy
