Rory McIlroy entered the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge just three strokes off the lead but quickly slipped down the leaderboard with three bogeys on his first five holes.
The world No. 1 settled himself down with a par on No. 6, but then completely knocked himself out of contention with a double bogey-par-bogey finish to turn in 6-over 41. McIlroy righted the ship somewhat on the back nine, shooting a 2-under 33 to reach 6-under par for the tournament.
“I got off to a really bad start,” said McIlroy, who had posted seven consecutive top-5 finishes prior to the COVID-19 shutdown.
“Hit a loose second shot on the first hole up to the right and then sort of messed around and took bogey there, so not the ideal start.
“The wind was up today. You didn’t have to be that much off for it to sort of show and I missed a couple of greens in the wrong spots and made bogeys.
“But you know, played all the way to the end, shot a decent back nine. I was a couple under on the back, but front nine I just got into a rut and played a bad run of holes and obviously that put me out of the tournament.”
The poor Sunday round resulted in the 31-year old star falling from a top-10 position into a tie for 32nd – his worst finish of the season.
Rory McIlroy’s 2020 Season
Start No. Event (Finish)
1. The ZOZO Championship (T3)
2. WGC – HSBC Champions (1)
3. Farmers Insurance Open (T3)
4. The Genesis Invitational (T5)
5. WGC – Mexico Championship (5)
6. Arnold Palmer Invitational (T5)
7. Charles Schwab Challenge (T32)
