Rory McIlroy, Can he get form back for The Open Championship?

With The Open just two weeks away, Rory McIlroy must bounce back from a missed cut at the Irish Open

Rory McIlroy played host at this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, benefiting his charity foundation. Unfortunately, he also played just two rounds, missing the cut at home for the fourth time in five years. With The Open Championship just two weeks away, can he bounce back before Royal Birkdale?

McIlroy worked to recover from a frustrating first round at Portstewart, having carded a level par 72 on Thursday. He was able to get as low as two-under through 13 on Friday, with a real shot at making the cut. However, a bogey on the par-3 sixth, and a painful double on the par-4 eighth sent the defending champ packing.

What raises the most questions is the nature of McIlroy’s short game. Three weeks ago at Erin Hills, McIlroy was clearly struggling with the same thing – his putting. After putting three different putters in play that week, the Ulsterman settled on a more traditional blade, then finished tied for 17th at the Travelers Championship.

Just as things were looking up, it appears that McIlroy is back to square one with his short game. It’s a tough place to be for one of the world’s greatest players, especially with The Open so close. However, McIlroy isn’t losing his confidence just yet.

"It’s been a really frustrating year. Just hasn’t really went the way I wanted it to. And yeah, it’s been tough but I felt like I was playing well coming in here. I played a lot of links golf last week. I was shooting good scores. I was confident. Just when I needed to play well and shoot the scores that I was shooting last week, it just wasn’t quite there."

McIlroy knows how to handle The Open’s unique challenges, despite his struggles

Rory is still a heavy favorite at The Open, and for good reason. When he’s on, he’s still clearly among the top two or three players in the world. He’s also quite cognizant of what’s happening with his game at the moment, as he explained after his second round at Portstewart.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland during the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Portstewart Golf Club on July 7, 2017 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images) /

"It’s disappointing because I felt like I was playing well coming into the week and I need to do some practice over the weekend and get ready for next week.My short game is not sharp enough and I’m making silly mistakes. I’m not being very proficient with my scoring and making it difficult for myself."

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McIlroy would go on to say that he doesn’t feel as though he’s that far away from being back on top. As much attention as his putter drew in recent weeks, it’s his chipping and pitching that have made life difficult. I’m not going to reveal anything crazy here, honestly: if Rory can figure out what’s happening around the greens, putting gets a whole lot easier, regardless of what’s in the bag.

McIlroy will be sticking around Portstewart this weekend, finishing out his duties as the tournament host, and hopefully sneaking in some practice time. It will also help that he jumps right back into action at the Scottish Open next week.

Next: The 2017 Open Championship field

As Tiger Woods has famously said, McIlroy simply needs those “reps” in competition to figure things out. And I, for one, won’t be betting against him yet.

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