Rory McIlroy admits Major headache

As if there was any hiding from it, Rory McIlroy has admitted he has his work cut out if he’s to successfully defend his US Open title this month.

The world No.2 was speaking after missing the cut at the Memorial on Friday night - the third time in the past three tournaments that McIlroy has gone home before the weekend.

The Northern Irishman managed only two rounds last month at the Players Championship and the BMW PGA Championship, conceding that he’s taken his “eye of the ball” and vowed to spend hours on the practice range.

However, he was out of sorts again at Muirfield Village, posting a nightmare quadruple bogey on Thursday before carding a woeful second-round score of 79 to finish six over and three shots shy of the cut mark.

And, with his US Open defence only 11 days away, McIlroy realises he needs to cut out the big mistakes at the Olympic Club if he’s to celebrate the second Major of his career.

“I hit some good shots, it just seems like every time I go out there I make one or two big numbers and that sort of throws me,” the 23-year-old said.

“Just those big numbers at the beginning are killing me, and I just need to get those off the card and I’ll be OK. I’m definitely hitting the ball better than I did last week, so I can see an improvement there.

“But I’ve still got a long way to go.” World No.1 Luke Donald, playing alongside McIlroy, had a few words of comfort for his young rival, saying: “Just having watched Rory the last few days, he’s not far away. He made a couple of careless errors and made some big numbers on a couple holes that was the difference this week.

"I’m sure once he posts that one good round, that one solid run of maybe a couple of rounds, this will be a blur and he’ll forget about it quickly.” McIlroy had already added this week’s St Jude Classic to his schedule in a bid to get more rounds in before his Major mission starts in San Francisco on June 14.

He added: “I don’t feel like the scores are actually reflecting how I’m hitting the ball. I just need to keep working on it and try and string 18 good holes together, and then try and string two days together, and obviously three days and ultimately four.”