Rory McIlroy stumbles to opening eight-over-par

It was another bad day at the office for Rory McIlroy who faces an early exit after shooting a disastrous 79 (+8).

The former world number one clearly has it all to do if he’s to survive the cut and is in desperate need of a sparkling round tomorrow.

The Northern Ireland superstar admits he’s struggling mentally to get things right on the course, saying: “Sometimes I feel like I’m walking around out there and I’m unconscious. I just need to try to think more. I’m trying to focus and trying to concentrate. But, yeah, I can’t really fathom it at the minute, and it’s hard to stand up here and tell you guys what’s really wrong.

“I don’t know what you can do. You’ve just got to try and play your way out of it. But it’s nothing to do with technique. It’s all mental out there. And then obviously I just need to concentrate,”

These are unhappy and frustrating times for the double major champion who concedes he faces an uphill struggle to play over the weekend.

He added: “I want to try to be here for the weekend. But the thing that I need to do tomorrow is just go out there and freewheel it and try and make birdies and try and play with that little bit of whatever it is I usually have in the locker.

“That’s what I’ve to try and go out and do tomorrow, even though it’s going to be tough to make birdies out there.”

But that is exactly what he has got to do while keeping the dreaded bogeys, and worse, off his card. There is very little room for error and manoeuvre this time.

Before setting off to reflect on his latest below-par display, he said defiantly: “I feel like I’ve got the shots, it’s just a matter of going through the right thought process to hit them and that’s something that I obviously haven’t been doing recently.”