Early departures for Day, McIlroy
ERIN, WIS. » Jason Day was walking away from Erin Hills with his wife and son when he managed to find one positive about this U.S. Open.
“Guess what?” he said to 4-year-old Dash. “We get to go home today because Daddy played poorly.”
That’s something Day, the No. 3 player in the world, rarely says at a major.
He was a long shot to make the cut Friday after opening with a 79, his worst score ever in a U.S. Open, and he removed any suspense when he hit a wedge over the green at No. 2 (his 11th hole) and then started hitting his tee shots in the hay.
Day shot a 75 for a two-day total of 10-over 154, ending at 17 the longest active streak of making the cut in the majors. The last time Day missed a cut in a major was the 2012 PGA Championship, just a month after his son was born.
He never would have guessed it.
“I felt the most calm I have in a major in a long time this week,” said Day, who arrived last Friday. “And just unfortunately, this didn’t pan out.”
It didn’t for Rory McIlroy, either.
McIlroy, the No. 2 player in the world, also arrived last Friday having missed the last month to rest a nagging rib injury. He loved Erin Hills, a course with wide fairways between the knee-high fescue that he figured would allow him to attack. If only he had hit the fairways.
McIlroy was never in the short grass from the 11th hole to the end on Thursday when he opened with a career-worst 78, and he didn’t do nearly enough in the second round until it was far too late. And even that was frustrating.
Sure, he birdied four of his last six holes to salvage a 71 and finish at 5-over 149. But he missed a pair of 10-foot birdie chances in that stretch, and one of the birdies he made was a two-putt from 20 feet on the par-5 seventh.
“Show up for the last six holes, anyway,” McIlroy said.
It was the second straight year McIlroy missed the cut at the U.S. Open.
McIlroy dismissed the notion of being rusty before the tournament, but conceded on his way out of Wisconsin that he hasn’t played nearly enough. He missed nearly two months at the start of the year when he was diagnosed with a slight rib fracture, and then the latest break after The Players Championship.
The U.S. Open was only his sixth start this year.
“I think at the end of the day, it’s competitive rounds and get the card in my hand,” McIlroy said. “And I’ve been very light on competitive rounds this year, and it’s just a matter of getting into a good round of golf now.”