Rory McIlroy misses cut after woeful second round at Canadian Open

Rory McIlroy carded a woeful eight-over-par 78 as he missed the cut at the Canadian Open.

It is the first time the Northern Irishman has failed to make the weekend in a tournament since the Open Championship last July.

The Masters champion, who won this event in 2019 and 2022, ended his second round at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley on nine over par overall, 149th in a 153-man field – a remarkable 22 shots behind leader Cameron Champ.

McIlroy, who started the day on one over par, made a quadruple-bogey eight on the par-four fifth and dropped further shots at the eighth, 10th, 11th and 13th holes before recording his first birdie of the day on the 15th.

Another bogey arrived at the 17th, and while he delivered a birdie on the final hole it left McIlroy well short of the projected cut line at three under.

Champ, who only arrived in the early hours of Wednesday morning having been the eighth alternate last weekend, followed up an opening 62 with a four-under 66, as he opened a two-stroke advantage over fellow American Andrew Putnam.

It was also a good day for Ireland’s Shane Lowry, whose two-under-par 68 took him to eight under, four shots adrift of Champ.

Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen is just ahead of Lowry at nine under along with home favourites Richard Lee and Nick Taylor, and France’s Victor Perez.

However, there was also disappointment for Justin Rose, who McIlroy defeated in a play-off at the Augusta National in April.

The Englishman will also not be around for the weekend after missing out in unfortunate circumstances at one under par.

After finding the rough off the seventh tee, the 2013 US Open champion unintentionally caused his ball to move while shifting a loose impediment and was given a two-stroke penalty after failing to put the ball back in its original position.

France’s Matthieu Pavon also had a second round to forget, signing for a 10-over-par 80, which included a 12 on his opening hole, the par-four 10th.