HIS NAME WILL continue to adorn boards around Royal County Down this weekend, just not the scoreboards.
Rory McIlroy missed the cut at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open this afternoon after shooting a level par 71.
The tournament co-host, McIlroy threatened to carve his way down to the cut line of +5 to earn a place on the tee box tomorrow morning. However, the longer his round went on the sooner it became apparent that the damage done by his opening day 80 would be irreparable.
The Co. Down man made the turn at one under par after birdying the seventh alongside eight pars. The world number one then chipped another shot off his tally on the par 5 12th, but undid his hard work with a disastrous double bogey on 15. From there, he needed a miracle to prolong his weekend but it never arrived.
All in all, it was a bad day for Irish golfers. Padraig Harrington is just a shot off the lead tonight, but dropped six shots on his back nine to slip back among the chasing pack.
Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Simon Thornton and Darren Clarke all made the cut, but Clarke’s 72 was the best round of the bunch.
Going in to the weekend there is a six-way tie for the lead on three under par. Bernd Wiesberger, Richie Ramsay, Chris Wood, Tyrell Hatton and Rafa Cabrera-Bello are all in good form after shooting 69 or lower. Soren Kjeldsen completes the sextet after adding a 70 to his opening 69.
There are big names lurking behind the halfway leaders, however. Harrington may be the only Major winner in the hunt, but Luke Donald joins him on -2 and Rickie Fowler’s back-to-back par rounds leave him just three shots off the lead with 36 to play.
