Struggling Rory McIlroy joins exalted company who were benched

Three out of three is bad. Rory McIlroy’s ignominious double-whammy on the opening day became triple heartache here on Saturday as he and Ian Poulter suffered a shellacking in the fourballs.

Benched in the morning, McIlroy was flattened in the afternoon - a depressingly familiar feeling for him here at Whistling Straits. He has yet to see the 16th. A 4&3 defeat was merely added evidence why he found himself surplus to requirements for Saturday morning.

It was hardly any shame. Jack Nicklaus lost two matches in one day in a Ryder Cup, as did Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros and Sir Nick Faldo. They also all found themselves rested for at least one session.

Despite his 26-match successive run going back to his debut at Celtic Manor in 2010, it was anything but a shock. The 32-year-old had sought largely to put down his first-day humblings (5&3 in morning alongside Poulter against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay and 4&3 in the afternoon alongside Shane Lowry against Tony Finau and Harris English) to the good play of his opponents, but there was at least a nod to his own shoddy form. “It’s tough when you’re not at 100 percent,” he said.

Let us face it, McIlroy has not even been operating at 60 per cent of his best, that much was clear when he and Poulter went out against the world Nos 2 and 3 and were three-down by the eighth for a deficit they were never to recover.

McIlroy did not make a single birdie all round. He had a chance on the 15th to extend the game with a birdie from 10 feet, but he missed. There was not a birdie in his 15 holes in the previous afternoon’s fourballs either. There was an eagle on Friday, but that meagre return over 30 holes is not the swashbuckling McIlroy we know from old, regardless of the fact that the wind had picked up.

Except it does fit in with his narrative of 2021, which apart from the victory at Quail Hollow in May has been one to forget. There was one other top-five on the PGA Tour, one top-five on the European Tour and a fourth at the Olympics. For most other players that would be more than satisfactory - he has accumulated more than £3 million in on-course earnings this year - but McIlroy is clearly judged by higher standards.

With his mission to win a fifth major hitting a blank for a seventh season in a row, McIlroy became so frustrated that he changed his coach for the first time since he was eight years old.

Pete Cowen is here and was closely following his faltering charge in the practice days, but going into Saturday afternoon’s fourballs the great Yorkshire instructor had been unable to stop the rot. Of course, with any golfer it is possible for fortunes to turn so quickly (that is what makes we hackers come back time and time again) and for McIlroy mini-resurrections can be launched in a single swoosh of his driver.

But nobody can pretend that things are right with the former prodigy, because his body language is awful. And in such an expressive performer such as McIlroy - a bouncy character who can lift your day merely by swaggering down a fairway - this is significant.

His head has been down almost since the off. Perhaps no player has missed the European fans more than this gallery favourite. Granted, losing so many holes on the front nine will only ever send you down that one-way street running in the opposite direction to momentum, but for McIlroy and Poulter it did seem self-perpetuating as the cheers rang down from all four corners.

Golf is like that, especially matchplay golf and even more especially team matchplay golf, and maybe not too much should be read into it. Everything going one way, nothing coming your way. It is hard to stop a wave and turn a tide. Even for a McIlroy.

So Harrington did what he had to. He then stuck up for his guy. He was asked by a US journalist if McIlroy was sick or injured. “No, his health’s good and he is in a strong frame of mind,” Harrington replied. Rory - we need him for the singles. If we’re going to win tomorrow we’re going to need a big singles day so we’ve got to keep that in mind.”

The Dubliner also used the old “it’s a team sport” line, talking about McIlroy as “a leader amongst his peers”. But if he is a leader it is because he gets results as a great individual. That is the only team player McIlroy has ever been interested in.