Rory McIlroy will head into the Open Championship at Muirfield on the back of a missed cut at the Irish Open and was joined in making an early exit by fellow major winners Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke.
McIlroy could only add a 72 to his opening 74 at Carton House to finish two over par, with McDowell and Harrington missing out by one shot on one over and Clarke six over.
That left former winner Shane Lowry to carry the burden of home hopes as the 2009 champion returned a second-round 70 to share third place on seven under, two shots behind leaders Robert Rock whom he beat in a play-off four years ago and American Peter Uihlein.
McIlroy admitted on Thursday he felt “a little bit lost” as he struggles to rediscover the form which brought him five victories last year and made him world number one.
But the 24-year-old said he would not add either the French or Scottish Open to his schedule ahead of the third major championship of the year, instead honouring sponsor and family commitments and working on getting the right Nike driver.
“It’s not great for the tournament that myself, Graeme, Darren, Padraig and Paul McGinley are not here for the weekend, but we have Shane up there and after playing with him for two days I think he has a good chance going into the weekend,” he said.
Despite holding off Tiger Woods and McIlroy to win the Abu Dhabi Championship last year, Rock’s biggest payday remains the “winner’s” cheque of 500,000 euros he collected at Baltray in 2009, with Lowry unable to claim it as he was still an amateur.
“I’ll never forget that day, playing with Shane,” Rock said after a flawless 66 that included four birdies and an eagle from just four feet on the par-five fourth.
“That was really, really tough. That was probably harder than playing with Tiger in the final group, because I did feel like I had some people on my side in Abu Dhabi! I don’t even think there was one (in Ireland).”
Top Scot is Scott Henry whose marvellous 64 yesterday left him three behind the joint leaders on six-under. Fifer Peter Whiteford is one behind after a second round 68.
Also making the cut are Paul Lawrie (70), Stephen Gallacher (70), David Drysdale (71), Callum Macaulay (71) and Marc Warren (75).
Heading home are Scott Jamieson (71) and Craig Lee, who had a horrendous second round 85, while Chris Doak withdrew from the competition.