McIlroy misses cut again

Rory McIlroy missed his third straight cut with a miserable seven-over second round at Muirfield Village as Tiger Woods eased into contention at the Memorial Tournament.

McIlroy recovered from a nightmare quadruple-bogey seven on the ninth hole on Thursday to finish the day in a share of 20th on one under. But there was no halt to his steady decline, as he bogeyed twice on the front nine on his second round before doubles at the 11th and 14th, together with a further dropped shot at 13, confirmed his early exit.

For Woods it was a different story as his three-under 69 saw him finish the day five under overall, one stroke behind second-round leader Rory Sabbatini of South Africa.

McIlroy said: "I hit some good shots, it just seems like every time I go out there I make one or two big numbers and that sort of throws me.

"Just those big numbers at the beginning are killing me, and I just need to get those off the card and I'll be okay."

The round, which did not include a single birdie, came after McIlroy missed cuts at the Players Championship and the PGA Championship.

Looking ahead to his defence of the US Open title, he added: "I hit some good shots out there. I'm definitely hitting the ball better than I did last week, so I can see an improvement there. But I've still got a long way to go."

Woods, meanwhile, hit five birdies in his round, and it could have been even better but for a double bogey on the par-three 12th.

Woods predicted the field would stay bunched up, telling www.pgatour.com: "The guys aren't going to go out there and shoot a bunch of low rounds out here. This golf course is hard. The pin locations are going to be difficult. So it's going to be another good test."

Sabbatini said: "It feels good. Obviously it's been a trying year, and obviously it's great to see some return on the effort I've been putting in. So that feels fantastic."