WATCH: Rory McIlroy's Open Championship woes continue as Northern Irishman endures horror triple-bogey fourth

At time of writing, McIlroy sits on +12 for the tournament having dropped a further five shots in his opening five holes of the second round at Royal Troon, which follows Thursday’s seven-over par 78, and trails clubhouse leader – and good friend – Shane Lowry by 19.

The Northern Irishman’s decade-long wait for a fifth major title will be extended until at least next year’s Masters, where McIlroy will once again look to complete his career collection, and he’ll want to forget about this week’s showing in a hurry.

After finding the long grass at the fourth, McIlroy struggled to recover position and his hopes of progressing to the weekend took a major hit.

McIlroy isn’t the only star player to have struggled – Tiger Woods finished on +14 while US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau (currently +7), Ludvig Aberg (+8) and Scottish Open winner Rob MacIntyre (+8) also couldn’t find form.

Ahead of Friday’s round, McIlroy admitted his focus was on making the cut rather than dreams of glory, saying: “I mean, all I need to focus on is tomorrow and try to make the cut. That’s all I can focus on.

“I felt like I did OK for the first part of the round and then missed the green at the Postage Stamp there and made a double.

“But still, felt like I was in reasonable enough shape being a couple over through nine, thinking that I could maybe get those couple of shots back, try to shoot even par, something like that.

“Even though the wind on the back nine was helping, it was a lot off the left. I was actually surprised how difficult I felt like the back nine played. The conditions are very difficult in a wind that we haven’t seen so far this week.

“I guess when that happens it starts to present different options and you start to think about maybe hitting a few clubs that you haven’t hit in practice. Just one of those days where I just didn’t adapt well enough to the conditions.”

Despite McIlroy’s misfortune, Northern Ireland will have weekend representation with County Antrim ace Tom McKibbin posting a respectable one-over par considering conditions, leaving him on +3 for the tournament.

Former champions Darren Clarke went even-par through his second round, producing three birdies on the front-nine and sits on +6.