Pádraig Harrington carries flame as Rory McIlroy bows out at Baltusrol

No way was he missing the cut. Pádraig Harrington didn’t want to be anywhere else for the weekend, and the former champion literally rolled up his sleeves and showed that old fighting spirit of his to ensure he’d be around for the final two rounds of this 98th US PGA Championship here at Baltusrol Golf Club.

He’ll be the lone Irishman, though.

The last man standing!

Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy all failed to survive the cut, with a closing bogey proving extremely costly for McIlroy, who missed out by one stroke. Instead, he'll be a ringside spectator at the Carl Frampton-Santa Cruz world title bout in Brooklyn rather than chasing another Major title.

The putter yet again proved to be McIlroy’s undoing. He was ranked number one in driving through the first two rounds but only 151 out of 156 players in the putting statistics. And, having spent hours on the practice green on Thursday night, McIlroy failed to turn the putter any hotter. Any progress at all, he was asked? “Not really,” he succinctly replied after a closing bogey on the par-five 18th saw him sign for a one-under 69 and a three-over total.

Of his woes on the greens, McIlroy said: “I was planning on taking two weeks off and then practicing the week before Barclays (the start of the FedEx playoff series). But I’ll still take two weeks off from tournaments, but I’ll have to see what practice schedule looks like. I need to go something. Tee to green is good, I just need to figure out what to do on the greens. I need to have a long hard think about that.”

McIlroy’s not in a good place with the putter in hand, and a missed cut here – especially after getting into a position to at least get into the weekend’s final two rounds and take it from there – only added to what has been, as he put it, a “disappointing” season. A par at the last would have been sufficient for McIlroy but, having found greenside rough in two on the Par 5, he duffed two chips and ran up a bogey six.

For his part, Harrington showed his fighting qualities with two par-saving putts on his final two holes, from eight feet on the eighth and 10 feet on the ninth, his closing hole, to make it into the weekend on one over after a level-par 70.

Although 10 strokes behind joint-leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb, Harrington remarked: “I’m going out to play great golf at the weekend. I’m not going out to shoot two 70s! The lead came back the last time we were here in 2005, Sunday proved to be very difficult, so you never know what’s going to happen.”

He added: “I’d love to play golf yesterday like I did every day and I’d love to putt like I did today every day. Just need do it for the one day!” In other words, he needs to combine his tee-to-green game from Thursday’s first round with his putting of Friday’s second round.

Harrington’s other focus is on earning some FedEx Cup points. Currently, he is 140th in the FedEx Cup standings on the PGA Tour.

Walker, who bogeyed the last for a 66, and Streb, who birdied his closing hole for a 63 which equalled the lowest round in any Major, shared the lead on nine-under-par 131 with Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo and defending champion Jason Day in tied-third two shots back.

Lowry (73) and Clarke (71) both ended up on five over, while McDowell 75 left him back on nine over.