AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy’s bid to complete a career grand slam will have to wait yet another year as the world’s No. 2 player is almost certain to miss the cut at the Masters for the second time in three years.
McIlroy needs a win at Augusta National to become only the sixth golfer in history to win all four majors, but he struggled mightily Friday. He shot 77 to leave him at 5-over-par through 36 holes, three shots behind the projected cut.
Several golfers were still on the course when play was suspended twice because of a weather warning, but McIlroy’s chances of playing on the weekend appear all but over.
Brooks Koepka leads the tournament at 12-under.
McIlroy wasn’t immediately available after his round because interviews were postponed because of the weather warning.
The 33-year-old McIlroy was one of the favorites coming into the week after a second-place finish at last year’s Masters. But after shooting 72 on Thursday, nothing consistently went well for the Northern Irishman in Round 2 as he bogeyed four of his first seven holes to shoot 40 on the front nine.
The wheels appeared to fall off on No. 11 when he shanked his approach shot into the woods and was forced to take a drop, leading him to hang his head in disgust.
It wasn’t until the modified par-5 13th — the tee box has been pushed back about 35 yards — when McIlroy make his first birdie of the day. He made another on the 15th to get back to 3-over but closed with bogeys on Nos. 16 and 18 to end a disappointing day.
This is McIlroy’s 15th appearance at the Masters, and he said earlier in the week he had “all of the ingredients” to win the tournament but just needed to put them altogether.
That didn’t happen Friday as seven bogeys did him in.
His normally reliable driver abandoned him, as he found the bunker on No. 2 and the trees on the seventh. His short game failed him, too, as he sent a short sand wedge over the back of the green on No. 3. The putts simply weren’t falling.
This was the ninth time McIlroy has come to Augusta National looking fill the one void on his major resume. McIlroy has won won the PGA Championship twice, along with the British Open and U.S. Open but remains winless at the Masters.
He has not won a major since the 2014 PGA Championship.
