As I sip my afternoon tea on this lovely Friday, I can reflect on my work week and say to myself with confidence, job well done. Rory McIlroy’s Friday has been a bit less blissful.
Through two rounds, golfers Cameron Champ and Andrew Putnam find themselves at -12 and -10 respectively, leading the field at the RBC Canadian Open. While Putnam is a seasoned pro (granted, 146th in the world), I had never heard of Cameron Champ. With a few run-of-the-mill guys scoring this low, you’d think grand slam champion Rory McIlroy (2nd in the world) would also be feasting at TPC Toronto.
You’d be mistaken.
Rory’s birdie on 18 brought his score to +9 through two rounds — 21 strokes behind the leader. While that score looks better than +10, it is not a good score.
After a lackluster performance at Quail Hollow and a performance this weekend that could be described in no way other than disastrous, it would be fair to question if Rory’s heart is fully in it. Could it be that his Masters win was the last box he needed to check before he himself fully checked out? It might be naive to jump to that conclusion, but it would be hard to argue that it’s not impacted his game in the short term.
I’m perplexed. Rory and Scottie are tied for the most wins on tour this season, proving Rory’s Masters win was no one-hit wonder for 2025. He’s the second best player in the world. And yet, Rory will finish 149th out of 153 in this weekend’s field, the worst in his PGA Tour career.
To me, it’s not the poor play — it’s the poor play in comparison to other golfers. If the whole field was struggling, we would be having a different conversation. The field was not struggling. And it’s not that Rory didn’t play well enough to make the cut; he didn’t play well enough to sniff it. His play landed him twelve strokes short of the cut. Twelve is a very high number.
Rory has mentioned that his motivation has dwindled a bit since his Masters win, noting that after some (much deserved) time off, spending 3-4 hours at the range has become more difficult. There’s been a Masters-sized hole in Rory’s resume, and now that it’s been filled, it may feel to Rory that there’s far less to chase after.
I believe Rory’s winning days are far from over, but he will have to dig a little deeper to find the will to win now that he’s just about won it all.
Rory addressed the media, a noble and unexpected move after avoiding the media all week in Charlotte just two weeks ago.
I too will address the media regarding my first comment: a job well done for me will earn me an honest wage. At $13,978,340 for the year, you could say that Rory’s already earned more than a few honest wages. So despite his failure to add to his total this weekend, I’m certain Rory will be okay. He’s had plenty of jobs well done thus far.
Cheers,
Luke Mangan