TROON, Scotland – Royal Troon and blustery conditions took a bite out of the top of the marquee at The Open, with five of the world’s top 10 players headed home from the season’s final major.
Rory McIlroy’s meltdown was the headline of the high-profile exits with the Northern Irishman imploding to rounds of 78-74 for his worst two-round total at a major since the 2013 Open Championship, when he missed the cut with rounds of 79-75.
“I look back on the two majors that I didn’t play my best at, here and the Masters, the wind got the better of me on Friday at Augusta, and then the wind got the better of me the last two days here,” said the world No. 2, who was 6 over through his first six holes Friday, including a triple-bogey 8 at No. 4. “I didn’t adapt well at all to that left-to-right wind yesterday on the back nine, and then this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, as I said, it got the better of me, and I felt pretty uncomfortable over a few shots.”
The collapse ends an eventful year in the majors for McIlroy, who bogeyed three of his final four holes to lose last month’s U.S. Open by a shot and posted top-25 finishes at the PGA Championship (T-12) and Masters (T-22).
His 11-over total left him five shots removed from the cut line.
The man who beat McIlroy at Pinehurst, Bryson DeChambeau, is also headed home from Scotland following rounds of 76-75 for his worst start to a major since posting 76-80 at the 2022 Masters. The missed cut ends an impressive run for the world’s ninth-ranked player in this year’s Grand Slam events, which include a victory at the U.S. Open, a runner-up showing at the PGA Championship and a tie for sixth place at the Masters.
Winds that gusted over 30 mph and thick rough seemed to confuse DeChambeau, and his struggles on links courses continued. He has a single top-10 finish in seven starts at the game’s oldest championship.
“It’s a completely different test. I didn’t get any practice in it, and I didn’t really play much in the rain,” he said following the first round. “It’s a difficult test out here. Something I’m not familiar with. I never grew up playing it, and not to say that that’s the reason; I finished eighth at St Andrews [at the 2022 Open]. I can do it when it’s warm and not windy.”
World No. 4 Ludvig Åberg was tied with DeChambeau at 9 over par in his first start at The Open, and No. 7 Viktor Hovland (75-77) made just one birdie in 36 holes and finished at 10 over. Hovland missed the cut in three of the year’s four majors, but he made the most of his one made cut with a third-place finish at the PGA Championship.
No. 5 Wyndham Clark, last year’s U.S. Open champion, posted the week’s worst performance for a top-10 player with rounds of 78-80 for a 16-over total.