Rory McIlroy will be shopping for a new driver this weekend as he searches for some form ahead of next week’s US Open.
McIlroy’s post Masters slump continued at the RBC Canadian Open on Friday as he shot an eight-over-par 78 in his second round to miss the cut by a mile.
The Grand Slam champion suffered a disastrous quadruple bogey eight – also known as a ‘snowman’ – on the fifth hole with his driving proving problematic in Toronto.
McIlroy’s previous driver was ruled to be non-conforming at the PGA Championship last month and the 36-year-old has been testing other options since.
And he revealed after crashing out of the Canadian Open that he and his caddie Harry Diamond have plenty of work to do before heading to Oakmont for the 125th US Open next week.
He said: “I went back to a 44-inch driver this week to try to get something that was a little more in control and could try to get something a bit more in play.
“But if I’m going to miss fairways, I’d rather have the ball speed and miss the fairway than not.
“I was saying to Harry going down the last that this is the second time this year that I’ve tried the new version [of the Taylormade driver] and it hasn’t quite worked out for me, so I’d say I’ll be testing quite a few drivers over the weekend.
“There’s still learnings you have to take from a day like today. Even though the last two days didn’t go the way I wanted them to, there’s still things I can take from it.
“I’m going to have to do a lot of practice and a lot of work over the weekend at home and try to at least have a better idea of where my game is going into next week.”
McIlroy hasn’t missed a cut at a regular PGA Tour event since The Players in March 2023.
His last missed cut, including majors, was at The Open in July 2024.
McIlroy’s driving has been poor in recent weeksGettyHe will now need to reset quickly ahead of the third major of the year with the US Open starting on Thursday.
Oakmont will provide a fearsome test for the showpiece tournament, with a premium on accuracy.
The famous Pennsylvania course will be set up extra tough with brutal bunkering, huge sloping greens and 5-inch rough.
McIlroy, who won the US Open at Congressional in 2011, is still among the favourites for glory next Sunday.
But he admits his alarming dip in form is a worry.
“Of course it concerns me,” he added.
McIlroy will need to find some form ahead of the US OpenGetty“You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. 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. I’m still sort of searching for the 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.”
American Cameron Champ leads the Canadian Open at 12-under-par after the opening two days with Andrew Putnam two shots back.
Thorbjorn Olesen and Victor Perez are joined by home-favourites Richard Lee and Nick Taylor at 9-under while Shane Lowry is also the mix.
talkSPORT 2 will have live commentary from TPC Toronto throughout the weekend.
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