Missed cut set to topple McIlroy

Golf Correspondent

Saturday 26 May 2012

There was one consolation for Rory McIlroy as he trudged off the West course at Wentworth last night after a thoroughly dispiriting second round at the BMW PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy ran into all sorts of trouble on day two. Picture: PA

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Nick Rodger

"I really wanted a four on the last to break 80," he said with a grimace.

The world No.1 birdied the final hole for a seven-over 79 to salvage some professional pride but it was a truly calamitous day for the 23-year-old during which a strong wind that swirled around the avenues of trees caused plenty of carnage.

While James Morrison, a local Surrey lad some 235 places below the Northern Irishman in the global pecking order, thrust himself into a four-shot lead with a dazzling 64 for 12-under-par 132, McIlroy limped in a staggering 21 strokes behind and missed the cut with a 153 in what was his worst ever result on the European stage.#Coming on the heels of his early exit from the Players' Championship at Sawgrass a fortnight ago, it is the first time in two years that McIlroy has missed successive cuts. With Luke Donald, the defending PGA champion, lurking ominously behind Morrison in second place on 136 alongside Berwickshire's David Drysdale, it looks as if McIlroy will be knocked off his world perch by the Englishman come tomorrow night to add to the anguish. Ahead of his defence of the US Open crown in less than three weeks, McIlroy has plenty to ponder."I think I might have taken my eye off the ball a little bit and maybe I've just not been practising as hard as I might have been," confessed McIlroy, whose round unravelled with a double-bogey on the eighth during a disastrous run of nine dropped shots in eight holes. "I need to go back, work hard and get my game back to the level it was leading into the Masters. It's just a week I want to forget."Before the furore that accompanied McIlroy's departure, Morrison had soared serenely to the head of the standings with a superbly assembled eight-under card before the wind really whipped up. As a former cricketer with England's youth side – he played in the same team as Alastair Cook and Tim Bresnan – you could say the 27-year-old has hit the West course's 18th hole for six so far.He picked up an eagle 3 there during his opening round, when he chipped in from the side of the green, and reduced the 539-yarder to just three blows again yesterday as he ignored the cautious advice of his caddie, smashed a three-wood to within 25 feet of the pin and then trundled in the putt.Given that he only started playing golf when he was 16, and brought his handicap down from 18 to scratch in just 10 months, Morrison's rise has been somewhat meteoric. He turned pro in 2008, earned promotion to the main tour through the Challenge Tour rankings at the end of 2009 and won his maiden title at the top table in Madeira the following year.Now, Morrison, whose grandfather was a pilot from Hamilton, is on course to propel himself into a whole new golfing stratosphere. "I desperately, desperately want to keep going forward," said Morrison, whose wife Jessica is expecting their first child in a fortnight."I expect a lot from myself. At the same time I've got the likes of Luke Donald and company behind me but I'll be trying my hardest to win."The hovering Donald, who admitted it took him five years to get his handicap down to scratch, manoeuvred himself into a position to strike with a 68 for 136 and starts the weekend knowing a top-eight finish will secure a return to the top of the world order. The 34-year-old will be gunning for outright victory, of course, and is aiming to impose himself on the leaderboard in more ways than one. Donald has been working with Dave Alred, England's former rugby kicking coach, on his body language. "He's always on at me about my posture," said last year's European and US No.1. "I'm trying now to get my chest out a bit and have a bit more of a swagger."Drysdale was certainly walking tall as a 70 kept him in the title hunt on a day when the tour's more unheralded names prospered and a host of big stars toiled. Lee Westwood double-bogeyed 17 but made birdie on the last in a 75 to survive the cut by the skin of his teeth on 145. However, the Open champion Darren Clarke joined a stellar casualty list that, in addition to McIlroy, also included the likes of Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Paul Casey.

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Missed cut set to topple McIlroy

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