Rory McIlroy makes brutal snowman at RBC Canadian Open, going home early

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CALEDON, Ont. — Rory McIlroy’s visit to Canada was a quick one after a disastrous start to his second round sunk his RBC Canadian Open week.

After sailing his second shot on the fifth hole from deep rough over the green and near a set of railway tracks, his best plan might have been to hang out there and wait for the next train out of town.

The two-time tournament champ in Canada made a quadruple-bogey eight on the fifth hole at TPC Toronto. After losing his approach shot and hitting his next shot over the green as well, McIlroy sailed his fifth shot back across the putting surface before finally chipping on and missing his triple-bogey putt.

That would be an eight. A snowman. Very Canadian, but not ideal.

“Once I made that big number on the front nine, I was always behind the eight ball a little bit. After nine holes, I sort of resigned myself to the fact that I’d be flying home to Florida tonight,” he said after his round. “Yeah, I’m going to have to do a lot of practice and a lot of work over the weekend at home and try to at least have a better idea of where my game is going into next week.”

Missing the cut in Canada means the end of competitive rounds for McIlroy to get used to his new driver ahead of next week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont.

After shooting a one-over 71 on Thursday with the course playing soft, McIlroy knew he needed a good day on Friday to get back in the tournament. That certainly did not happen.

McIlroy shot one of the worst scores of his professional career in the second round at TPC Toronto, an eight-over par 78. He has only shot a worse score six times in his professional career.

“Of course it concerns me. You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t,” he said.

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“Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn’t. Yeah, that’s a concern going into next week.”

After an interesting few weeks beginning with a failed driver test at the PGA Championship and some media silence, McIlroy arrived at one of his favourite tournaments looking for a return of the good vibes.

The Northern Irishman has already racked up wins at Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass and Augusta National, where he completed the career grand slam with his Masters triumph.

“I haven’t hidden my sort of aspirations for national opens and where I would like them to be, what their standing is in the professional game of golf. So this has meant a lot,” McIlroy said of his trips to Canada.

“Before playing in this event, 2016, 2017, 2018, I missed three cuts in a row at the U.S. Open, and since playing the Canadian Open the week before, I’ve had six top-10s in a row. So there’s something to that,” he added.

This year, McIlroy will be heading to the U.S. Open with just two rounds in Canada and just two tournament rounds with his new driver.