McIlroy in wait for aspark...

It started with a shout of “Fore left!” and ended with a 7-foot putt that didn’t come close to finding the cup.

Rory McIlroy is making an earlierthan-planned journey to Royal Birkdale for next week’s British Open after missing the cut at the Scottish Open following a 1-under 71 in his second round. He was 10 shots off the lead after two days that exposed the frailties in his wedge play and putting.

It was the world No 4’s third missed cut in his last four events and the latest low point in an injuryaffected 2017 for the four-time major winner.

“I’m just waiting for something,” McIlroy said. “Waiting for something, some sort of spark. Just something to go right, and the last couple of weeks haven’t been like that. Just got to keep plugging away and hopefully it turns around next week.

“I would have loved to have played more rounds going into not just The Open but the rest of the year,” he added. “But I’m sort of trying to learn as I go along.”

With little wind protecting Dundonald Links, McIlroy encountered benign conditions in his bid to make up for an opening-round 74 in the British Open warmup but still came up short.

The Northern Irishman pulled his tee shot on No 1 into a gorse bush, only to get a free drop — because the ball was ruled to have been embedded — and get up and down from a greenside bunker. He tapped in for birdie on holes 3, 5 and 7.

However, he needed two shots to get out of a greenside bunker on 13, and went down the par-5 18th knowing he needed at least a birdie. McIlroy pulled his approach from 220 yards into the light rough, chipped to 7 feet, but his birdie putt back didn’t break and missed by some distance.

Padraig Harrington (68), Callum Shinkwin (68) and Alexander Knappe (65) shared the lead, with Ian Poulter and Andrew Dodt a shot back after 69s. Rickie Fowler, playing in McIlroy’s group, shot 70 and was two strokes off the lead.