Golf:World number two Rory McIlroy admits he is not overly concerned with his form ahead of his defence of the US Open despite missing a third straight cut at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio last night.

It is the first time in four years that McIlroy has had such a poor run of form, carding a 79 in his second round to crash out of the tournament.

Nobody was that shocked when the run started with scores of 72 and 76 in the Players Championship at Sawgrass. McIlroy has yet to make a cut there, he has no great liking for the course and he was coming off a play-off at Quail Hollow.

But when he had rounds of 74 and 79 at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to crash out by eight shots eyebrows were raised, even more so afterwards when he admitted: “I might have taken eye off the ball a little bit”.

A trip the following day to see girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki in Paris before she began the French Open came only after he had put in some hard work in the gym and on the range. That hard work has continued, but it is not bearing fruit yet.

“I don’t feel like the scores are actually reflecting how I’m hitting the ball,” he said at Muirfield Village. “I hit some good shots. It just seems like every time I go out there I make one or two big numbers and that sort of throws me.”

McIlroy battled back for an opening 71 after running up a quadruple bogey seven on his third hole of the day, then in his second round he came to grief with another seven on the long 11th and another double bogey shortly afterwards.

“I just need to keep working on it and try and string 18 good holes together, then two days, three days and ultimately four.

“I’m definitely hitting the ball better than I did last week, so I can see an improvement there, but I’ve still got a long way to go.”

McIlroy is the only player in the world’s top 16 entered for the St Jude Classic in Memphis next week, an event he decided to play in only after his early exit from the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

It is generally agreed that a US Open is not the place to try to find your game, so Memphis takes on crucial importance. From there it will be straight onto the demanding Olympic Club in San Francisco.

The last time McIlroy missed three successive cuts was in August 2008 during his first full year as a professional. He bounced back from that in his very next tournament, starting the European Masters in Switzerland with a 63 and leading by four with a round to play.

That week actually ended with him messing it up in a play-off, missing a putt of barely 18 inches, but the way things are at the moment he will certainly take being in a play-off again next Sunday.

Luke Donald, who took the number one spot back off McIlroy by retaining his title at Wentworth, played the opening two rounds with McIlroy in Ohio.

“He’s obviously frustrated, this game does that to you,” he said. “He’s not far away. He made a couple of careless errors, but I’m sure once he posts one solid run of maybe a couple of rounds or a tournament this will be a blur and he’ll forget about it quickly.”