Rory McIlroy Finishes at 5 Over, Misses Cut at Players Championship

The 2019 champion at TPC Sawgrass struggled off the tee and missed the cut by three shots. He's taking a scouting trip to Augusta next.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Rory McIlroy’s form was nothing like what he displayed in 2019 when he won The Players Championship by one shot over Jim Furyk.

Struggling to find a driver he is comfortable with and forced to go flag hunting in the second round after shooting a 4-over 76 in Thursday’s first round, the Ulsterman struggled to a 1-over 73 and his sixth missed cut in 14 starts at TPC Sawgrass.

“Just very 'blah,'” McIlroy said in summing up a week he would like to quickly forget. “I guess the course, you just have to be really on to play well here. If you're a little off, it definitely magnifies where you are off. It's a bit of an enigma. Some years I come here and like it feels easier than others.”

McIlroy never really had a chance to make a run in the second round that started on Friday but was called due to inclement weather and resumed Saturday morning.

Before the delay, McIlroy bogeyed the 5th hole and then made a double bogey on the 6th when he putted off the green, falling to 7 over par.

Three birdies over the next 10 holes was not enough and McIlroy found the rough left on the 18th hole and to make his final bogey of the round in what was his last hole of the week.

“There's a little bit more room off the tee, and in fairness I've been maybe trying to push the driver a bit too much up the fairway here rather than just taking a couple of clubs less and hitting 5-wood or 3-wood or 2-iron or whatever it is,” McIlroy said of his driving woes in hitting only 13 of 28 fairways. “You don't want a big mis-hit in the bag."

It’s also possible that McIlroy has bitten off more than he can possibly chew with his involvement in Tour politics and his PGA Tour Policy Board responsibilities that have included participating in the discussions of implementation of the designated events and the more recent discussions of limited-field no-cut events, and being the public face and voice of the PGA Tour.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan referenced McIlroy’s involvement earlier this week in Tour matters and his amazement of how McIlroy sat in a seven-hour meeting on Tuesday night at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and then finished one shot off the lead.

“I'd love to get back to being a golfer, yeah,” McIlroy said. “Look, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and it's been—honestly it's been a busy sort of six or eight months, but as I said at the start of the week, everything has sort of been announced now, and the wheels have been put in motion, so it should obviously quieten down from here.”

McIlroy is off to Augusta next week to see how his game matches up to Augusta National and the changes made, including the lengthening of the 13th hole.

Unlike last year, McIlroy will play in WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in two weeks and then will take the rest of the time to focus on the Masters.

“I actually don't feel like I'm playing that badly at all,” McIlroy said. “A few miscues here and there, putted it off the 6th green yesterday ... just a little untidy here and there. But hit the ball O.K. Just, as I said, this course if you're a little off definitely just magnifies where you are.”