Rory McIlroy falls back with 77, makes Masters cut

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Rory McIlroy’s travails at the Masters Tournament continued Friday as he shot a second-round 77 to fall to 4-over par, 10 off the lead.

Although he made the cut in his bid to win the one remaining major he needs for the career Grand Slam, McIlroy struggled along with most everyone else in the whipping winds and lost contact with leaders Max Homa (71), Scottie Scheffler (72) and Bryson DeChambeau (73).

“Tough day, really tough day,” McIlroy said. “Just hard to make a score and just sort of trying to make as many pars as possible. I felt like I did OK. I made that bogey on 14, and even just to par the last four holes and get in the clubhouse and have a tee time tomorrow, I'm sort of pretty happy with. … Scoring was very difficult.

“Yeah, just one of those days that couldn't – I mean, most of the field couldn't really get anything going,” he added. “It was just a matter of trying to hang in there as best you could.”

It’s been a strange season for McIlroy, a three-time FedExCup champion who came into last week’s Valero Texas Open without a top-10 finish on the PGA TOUR in 2024. He made a trip to see renowned swing coach Butch Harmon in Las Vegas, and soon after shot a final-round 66 to finish third at the Valero at TPC San Antonio last weekend.

Things were looking up, but he hasn’t found much at Augusta National. What’s more, his second round with playing partners Scheffler and Xander Schauffele took over six hours, including an impromptu social hour on the 11th tee due to a massive backup on the hole.

“It felt long, yeah,” McIlroy said. “My golf swing felt horrific for the last six or seven holes, just from sitting around. Especially that 11th hole – No. 11 it felt like it took an hour to play that hole.

“Yeah, it was stop and start,” he continued. “Hard to get into a rhythm with the conditions and obviously how slow the play was as well.”

The Masters has been bittersweet for McIlroy. He led going into the back nine on Sunday in 2011 but crumbled and shot 80 to finish T15. He has suffered a series of poor starts here in recent years, dooming his chances to win, despite a memorable final-round 64 to finish second 2022.

He now will need to make a similar climb to get back into the tournament this weekend.

“I won from 10 back in Dubai at the start of the year,” he said. “But obviously the Dubai Desert Classic and the Masters are two very different golf tournaments. We'll see. Hopefully, the conditions are a little better tomorrow. Yeah, I still think I can go out tomorrow and shoot a low one, get back into red numbers, and have half a chance going into Sunday.”