Rory McIlroy misses cut at Players Championship

Rory McIlroy missed the cut by three shots after the storm-affected second round of the Players Championship came to a belated end on Saturday.

McIlroy’s fate seemed clear after he followed his miserable opening round of 76 with a 73 on Friday, and it was confirmed as the cut was made at two over par once the final finishers had reached the clubhouse on Saturday morning.

“It was just very blah,” said McIlroy on pgatour.com. “I guess the course, you just have to be really on to play well here.

“If you’re a little off, it definitely magnifies where you are off. It’s a bit of an enigma. Some years I come here and it feels easier than others.”

It was the first time McIlroy had missed the cut since failing to make the weekend at the FedEx St. Jude Championship last August, and he admitted he found the course difficult to master.

He said: “It’s just a tricky golf course, you don’t hit fairways and you’ve got your work cut out for you.

“I was just a little untidy here and there. In fairness I’ve been maybe trying to push the driver a bit too much up the fairway here rather than just taking a couple of clubs less and hitting 5-wood or 3-wood or 2-iron or whatever it is.”

Canadian Adam Svensson will start the third round with a two-shot lead over reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler after a birdie on the 18th saw him sign for a second round of 67.

Ben Griffin followed his opening 67 with a second round of 71 to drop back into four-way tie for third alongside Min Woo Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Collin Morikawa.

Aaron Rai moved up 51 places to a share of 20th with a second round of 69, moving level with both Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose as the best placed Englishmen on the leaderboard.