Philip Reidtalked to an exasperated Rory McIlroy who may take a six-week break to sort out his game and back problems

RORY McILROY has time on his side, which is just as well. Yesterday, the Ulsterman phenomenon – who has made breathtaking strides since turning professional in 2007 – discovered what mere mortals feel like as he suffered a real rarity in his career, missing back-to-back cuts.

Only, this one hurt badly. It was in a major, and it was on a course where there is no place to hide. McIlroy’s problems were exposed; and the harder he tried, the tougher things got in a second round 77 for 155, seven over par, that meant an unwanted free weekend. His immediate response was to contemplate taking a break from the sport, probably as long as six weeks until the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

“I’m not enjoying myself, and you can’t enjoy yourself if you are not playing well. I just want to go home and rethink what I am going to do for the next few weeks. I feel like taking a complete break, getting my head showered and my back cleared up,” said McIlroy, who has been struggling with a back ailment since the Dubai Desert Classic in February.

The temptation for McIlroy, who has been working with noted sports psychologist Bob Rotella in the past couple of months, is to return to his carefree days of not so long ago. “Sometimes, I think, I need to go back and play like I was a kid and go and whack it and go and whack it again. You get out here, your head can get cluttered up with a few things,” he said.

He added: “I just want to go out and get my game back into shape again. I think it is more I have done all these great things myself, and I have put a lot of expectation on myself. Maybe if I sit back and tell myself I am 20 years old . . . I do expect better of myself and it has been a disappointing couple of months.”

McIlroy’s form has dipped dramatically since he recorded back-to-back top-six finishes in the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Dubai Desert Classic in February, after which he developed a back injury caused by a bone stress. He has been told it will heal in time, but it has clearly played on his mind. Having missed the cut in Houston last week, he had hoped a return to the challenge of Augusta would heal his woes.

Instead, he suffered back-to-back missed cuts.

The damage in his second round was done late on in his front nine, running up a double bogey six on the seventh – where he put his tee-shot into the trees, played a recovery into a greenside bunker where he was on a downslope and then proceeded to hit the next shot into a front bunker – and then suffered a bogey on the par-five eighth, where he’d been left with a 100 yards approach which missed the green right.

“I don’t know what is going on,” claimed McIlroy. “I just need to take a bit of a break and come back with a refreshed attitude. I am getting frustrated very easily and getting down on myself and I just think that I need to go home and get my head sorted.”

He was due to play in the Quail Hollow Championship in a fortnight’s time, but that now seems unlikely and he could even miss The Players championship.