Rory McIlroy worrying admissions see punters lose faith in Masters Champion
Gamblers have lost faith in Rory McIlroy ahead of next week's US Open with his early season form appearing to have deserted him following an eight-over-par second round at the Canadian Open.
McIlroy has won the Canadian Open twice but finished near the foot of the leaderboard as his game came apart on Friday, where he shot a quadruple bogey on the par-four fifth hole.
The Holywood man admitted in his pre-tournament press conference that he is struggling for motivation after his Masters win and conceded that form is a problem heading to the third major of the year next week with the US Open heading to Oakmont.
'Of course it concerns me. You don't want to shoot high scores like the one I did today,' McIlroy said on the PGA Tour website.
'Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn't.
'Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee.
'Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn't. Yeah, that's a concern going into next week.'
Along with motivation issues, McIlroy also said that he has serious driver concerns.
'It's hard with the driver, like with the one I had been playing with previously, when I missed with it, I was a little bit left. Then my miss with this one is a little bit right.
'It's just trying to figure that out and manage it a little bit. It's a nice feeling to get up the middle of the fairway and fully release it and know it's not going to go left on you.'
After his poor finish in Canada, gamblers have opted not to back McIlroy ahead of next week's US Open. McIlroy's odds have drifted to 9/1 behind LIV Golf's Bryson DeChambeau who has shorted to 17/2 while world number one Scottie Scheffler is favourite at 11/4.
Jon Rahm is next best at 12/1.
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