Bogey blues as Rory McIlroy shoots second-round 78 and misses cut at Canadian Open

The Masters champion carded a quadruple bogey, a double and four other bogeys in an eight-over-par round that left him languishing 21 shots behind halfway leader Cameron Champ, who finished on 12 under.

It is the first time the world number two has missed the cut since the Open at Royal Troon last July.

There was better news for Irishman Shane Lowry, whose two-under-par 68 took him to eight under and a share of seventh place along with six other players.

Champ’s fellow American Andrew Putnam climbed to second on 10 under after a superb eight-under-par-62 while Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, who began the day with a share of the lead, was tied third on nine under with Canadians Richard Lee and Nick Taylor.

McIlroy’s round continued his troubled build-up to next week’s US Open at Oakmont having been forced to switch to a different driver.

The Northern Irishman’s previous model was deemed non-conforming in a random test on the eve of last month’s US PGA Championship, in which he finished joint-47th.

He was already facing an uphill battle after shooting one over par on Thursday and his day began to unravel after taking an eight on the par-four fifth.

That occurred after he fired his second shot out of bounds from the rough and was forced to take a further penalty after playing a provisional. He then missed the green with his fifth shot and needed three more to find the hole.

Things got worse from there with further bogeys at the eighth and 10th before he double-bogeyed the 11th and then dropped more shots at the 13th and 17th. There was at least some relief with birdies on the 15th and at the last.

Champ delivered his second successive bogey-free round as he followed his opening 62 with 66.

Justin Rose, beaten by McIlroy in a play-off at the Masters in April, also missed the cut after finishing one under following a round of 74.

World number eight Ludvig Aberg also ran up a quadruple bogey on his card but held on to make the cut on four under after a 68.

McIlroy had been trialling different options before his return to competitive action at this week’s RBC Canadian Open.

The new driver is an inch shorter than his previous club and should offer him more control heading into next week’s US Open at the notoriously tough Oakmont Country Club.

But when he put it into play at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, his driving accuracy, hitting nine of 14 fairways, was in the bottom half of players in the field after the first round, although he did not want for distance with his longest drive 343 yards.

“It was my first outing with a new driver and I felt like that went pretty well. I hit some drives that I liked,” McIlroy said in his post-round interview on Thursday. “It’s hard with the driver, like with the one I had been playing with previously, when I missed with it, I was a little bit left. Then my miss with this one is a little bit right.

“It’s just trying to figure that out and manage it a little bit. It’s a nice feeling to get up the middle of the fairway and fully release it and know it’s not going to go left on you.”