Rory McIlroy rues poor start after disappointing finish at Colonial

Rory McIlroy was left regretting an expensive start to his final round after quickly falling out of contention at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

The world No 1 went into the final day three strokes off the lead and was looking to make a fast start to put pressure on those ahead of him, only to quickly slip down the leaderboard with three bogeys in his first five holes.

McIlroy double-bogeyed the seventh and missed a four-footer at the ninth to reach the turn in 41 and six over for the round, before cancelling out a birdie at the tenth by taking two attempts out of a bunker on his way to a dropped shot at the 15th.

The four-time major champion then birdied two of his last three holes – including a hole-out from the bunker at the 16th – to close out a four-over 74 at Colonial Country Club and end the week in tied-32nd, his worst worldwide finish since missing the cut at The Open last July.

“I got off to a really bad start,” McIlroy said. “Hit a loose second shot on the first hole up to the right and then sort of messed around and took bogey there, so not the ideal start.

“The wind was up today. You didn’t have to be that much off for it to sort of show and I missed a couple of greens in the wrong spots and made bogeys.

But you know, played all the way to the end, shot a decent back nine. I was a couple under on the back, but front nine I just got into a rut and played a bad run of holes and obviously that put me out of the tournament.”

Justin Rose also started three of the pace and slipped further behind after bogeying the second, but bounced back with successive birdies from the fifth and by holing another from 12 feet at the tenth.

The 2018 champion responded to a three-putt bogey at the 11th by birdieing his next two holes and made another at the 17th to get to 14 under, before burning the edge of the cup when looking for a final-hole birdie to force his way into a play-off.

“Virtually every day I feel like I’m a couple under through two, so to be one-over through two today was definitely a poor start,” Rose said. “But hung in there well.

“Chose to roll the dice off the fifth tee, hit driver there to get a wedge in my hand and made birdie to right the ship. If I just look back, the 11th hole, made a six there, so was not playing the par-fives great today.

“Other than that, hung in there and stayed with it all day and had great putts on 14, 16 and 18 that all looked in. Delighted to have put myself in contention, and down the stretch I felt really comfortable.”

(c) Sky Sports 2020: Rory McIlroy rues poor start after disappointing finish at Colonial