Irish eyes are cryin’.
They’re cryin’ because their favorite golfing son has missed the 36-hole cut at the event that benefits his foundation.
Rory McIlroy couldn’t get anything going Friday morning at the Irish Open and stumbled his way to a 73 at Portstewart Golf Club that left him at one-over par the five full shots short of the 36-hole cut line. McIlroy was frustrated all day. It was clear that his lack of playing time affected his ability to shoot under par. After his opening 72, he went out and shot one-under par over his first nine holes on the back nine. With plenty of birdie holes in front of him the pro-McIlroy crowd was hopeful but the handwriting was on the wall when he took bogey at the short, 127-yard sixth then failed to birdie the par five seventh. The insult came when he made double at the eighth, ending all hope.
McIlroy placed most of the blame on the finesse part of his game. “My short game, in general, it’s just silly mistakes. I’m just not very efficient with my scoring,” said McIlroy, who was the defending champion at this event.
The man most have their eyes on over the next 36 holes is Jon Rahm, who played with McIlroy. Rahm (65-67) is 12-under and just a shot behind the less-credentialed co-leaders — American Daniel Im (64-67) and Frenchman Hebert (64-67).
Another pre-tournament favorite, Hideki Matsuyama, is lurking at nine-under, just four back. Like Rahm, Matsuyama played with McIlroy and beat the host by 10 shots.
