Rory McIlroy reveals shock score in brutal US Open practice round

Fair to say Rory McIlroy’s US Open preparations haven’t exactly been ideal.

Before missing the cut with driver woes at last week’s RBC Canadian Open, McIlroy made a reconnaissance trip to Oakmont Country Club to re-familiarise himself with this week’s notorious major venue.

The Masters champion has wiped his MC in the 2016 tournament at Oakmont from memory, but his next visit was hardly an auspicious start to his planning for the third major of the season.

On a practice round last Monday – the same day as Final Qualifying for the tournament itself – McIlroy divulged he was 13-over through 16 holes on the famed Pittsburgh layout.

Gnarly rough that is five inches deep and lightning fast greens proved way too much for the five-time major champion, who wasn’t been the only player battered by one of the toughest tests in golf.

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And even despite finishing with two birdies, McIlroy revealed he shot an 11-over 81.

Thankfully for McIlroy fans, there was at least some mitigation to that nightmarish scorecard.

“Yeah, there’s definitely been a little bit of rain since that Monday,” he said of his ominous Oakmont scouting trip. “Last Monday felt impossible. I birdied the last two holes for 81. It felt pretty good. It didn’t feel like I played that bad.

“It’s much more benign right now than it was that Monday. They had the pins in dicey locations, and greens were running at 15 and a half. It was nearly impossible.”

Indeed, McIlroy thinks the course is at least playable now that has been softened up by a welcome downpour.

“This morning it was a little softer,” he said. “The pins aren’t going to be on three or four percent slopes all the time. If you put it in the fairway, it’s certainly playable.

“But then you just have to think about leaving your ball below the hole and just trying to make as many pars as you can. You get yourself in the way of a few birdies, that’s a bonus.”

To the surprise of many, things have rather unravelled for McIlroy on the course since his career-defining, grand-slam clinching Masters win in April.

Rather than being unshackled from that Augusta National burden, somewhat of a post-Masters hangover has kicked in.

He underwhelmed on one of his favourite courses, the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow after his TaylorMade Qi10 driver gamer did not pass regular compliance checks on tournament weeks.

“It wasn’t a big deal for Scottie, so it-shouldn’t have been a big deal for me,” McIlroy said on Tuesday, with Scheffler also needing to swap out his driver before going on to lift the Wanamaker Trophy.

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McIlroy then switched to the Qi35 model for the Canadian Open and hit just 42% of the fairways during a torrid two rounds at TPC Toronto.

After testing drivers over the weekend back home in Florida, McIlroy has decided to reverted back to his trusty Qi10 at Oakmont.

“I learnt a lot on Thursday and Friday last week and did a good bit of practice at home and feel like I’m in a better place with everything going into this week,” McIlroy said on his driver struggles.

“I think it’s trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago. Then just trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working.

“I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labour come to fruition and have everything happen. But at the same time, you have to enjoy that.

“You have to enjoy what you’ve just accomplished. I certainly feel like I’m still doing that and I will continue to do that.

“At some point, you have to realise that there’s a little bit more golf left to play this season, here, Portrush, Ryder Cup, so those are obviously the three big things that I’m sort of looking at for the rest of the year.”

McIlroy begins his bid for a sixth major title at Oakmont on Thursday in a grouping alongside Shane Lowry and Justin Rose.

The European Ryder Cup trio will be out at 7:40am (12:40pm UK time) from the 10th tee on Thursday and 1.25pm (6:25pm UK time) from the first tee on Friday.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.