McIlroy misses Canadian Open cut after woeful round

Second-round leaderboard for the Canadian Open

-12 C Champ (US), -10 A Putnam (US), -9 T Olesen (Den), R Lee (Can), N Taylor (Can), V Perez (Fra)

Selected others: -8 S Lowry (Ire), -7 D Willett (Eng), R Hojgaard (Den), -4 H Hall (Eng), L Aberg (Swe), -3 R MacIntyre (Sco), P Waring (Eng), -1 J Rose (Eng), + 9 R McIlroy (NI)

Rory McIlroy missed the cut at the Canadian Open by carding an awful eight-over-par 78.

The Northern Irishman hasn’t missed a weekend tournament since the Open Championship in July for the first time.

The Masters champion finished his second round at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley nine over par overall and 149th overall, 22 shots clear of leader Cameron Champ, who won this event in 2019 and 2022.

Before making his first birdie of the day on the 15th, McIlroy, who had already started the day on par, dropped further shots on the eighth, 10th, 11th, and 13th holes after making a quadruple-bogey eight on the par-fourth hole.

At the 17th hole, McIlroy made another bogey, leaving him three under the cut line despite making a birdie on the final hole.

After playing the eighth alternate last weekend, Champ, who only arrived on Wednesday morning, shot an opening 62 under the four-under par 66 to take the lead over fellow American Andrew Putnam.

Shane Lowry, who is from Ireland, shot two under par 68 to finish one shot adrift of Champ, who was also on a good day.

At nine under, Thorbjorn Olesen, Richard Lee, Nick Taylor, and Victor Perez, France’s top player, are just ahead of Lowry.

Justin Rose, who McIlroy defeated in a play-off at the Augusta National in April, also experienced disappointment.

The Englishman will not be around for the weekend, having missed out on one under par.

The 2013 US Open champion accidentally caused his ball to move while shifting a loose impediment off the seventh tee and was given a two-stroke penalty for failing to restore the ball to its original position after finding the rough.