‘I can’t remember the last time I had one’: McIlroy shows he is human with swing and miss

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Masters champion Rory McIlroy survived an almighty scare on Friday afternoon to sneak into the weekend’s field at the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, averting the worst nightmare of tournament organisers.

The Northern Irish star had an air swing on the par-five 14th and made bogey, sending waves of fear around the composite course that he could miss the cut.

Rory McIlroy bounced back spectacularly from a nightmare fresh-air shot.

But in the end he birdied three of the last four holes, including the 18th, to shoot a three under par round of 68, meaning he finished inside the cut line.

McIlroy’s playing partners Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee shot up the leaderboard on Friday, shooting 66 and 65 respectively to put themselves in contention for the Stonehaven Cup.

But the tournament organisers’ nightmare was quickly becoming a reality midway through the afternoon, when McIlroy’s tee shot on 14 found the deep rough on the right-hand side.

The reigning US Masters champion located his ball under a tree and when he tried to get a club to it, his iron caught a branch on the downswing, and he missed the ball completely.

The air swing counted as a shot and McIlroy found himself scrambling just to make bogey.

“It wasn’t one of my finer moments … I can’t remember the last time I had a fresh air [shot],” McIlroy said with a grin after the round.

“I was trying to get in really low to get the ball back into play, and I caught a branch on the way down and missed the ball.”

He walked off the 14th green one over for the tournament, meaning he was outside the cut line. A weekend with packed crowds but without McIlroy? It seemed like a cruel joke. But the five time major winner quickly got to work.

He pulled out his driver on the 15th tee box and bombed it just before the greenside trap. After a beautifully crafted chip and a solid putt, McIlroy had erased his error from minutes earlier and was back to even par.

“The drive down 15 was a big shot because I felt like it was going to be a turning point, one way or another,” McIlroy said.

“I gave myself an easy enough birdie on 15 and played the last holes pretty well. I don’t feel like I’m that far behind, I certainly haven’t played my best, but I turned it on when I needed to there, and I’ll come back tomorrow and try to shoot a low one and give myself a chance.”

But the drama wasn’t over after the 15th.

Once again, McIlroy cut his driver badly on 17 and found the trees down the right-hand side. After getting lucky with where the ball stopped, he hit and incredible second shot to reach the front edge of the green – sending the corporate marquees surrounding the green into raptures.

McIlroy is seven shots back from leaders Rasmus Neergaard-Peters of Denmark and Portugese star Daniel Rodrigues, who at nine under for the tournament are just one shot ahead of Lee.