McIlroy admits driver “a concern” for US Open as he crashes out after Canadian Open 78

Rory McIlroy admits his driving is a "concern" ahead of next week's US Open.

His decision to put a new model in the bag backfired and he shot an eight-over 78 to miss the cut on nine over in the RBC Canadian Open.

The Masters champion hit just four fairways at TPC Toronto and shot his highest score since opening with a 78 en route to missing the weekend in last year's Open at Royal Troon.

"Yeah, of course it concerns me," McIlroy said after his first missed cut since the final Major of the season last July.

"You don't want to shoot high scores like the one I did today.

"Still, I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that 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. Still searching for the missing piece off the tee.

“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."

McIlroy had his preferred driver ruled non-conforming at last month's PGA Championship and struggled from the tee there, finishing 14 shots behind winner Scottie Scheffler in joint 47th.

He opted for the new TaylorMade model this week but again struggled from the tee en route to finish 149th in the 156-strong field in missing the cut by a whopping 12 shots.

The Holywood star knew he needed to shoot in the sixties to make the cut after opening with a one-over 71.

But his hopes evaporated early when he tugged his second out of bounds playing with a wedge from the rough at the 447-yard fifth and ran up a quadruple bogey eight.

Further bogeys followed at the eighth and 10th before he blocked his tee shot into a pond at the 197-yard 11th and made a double-bogey five.

He then dropped another shot at the 13th, where he drove miles left behind a tree, made his first birdie of the day at the 15th, but bogeyed the 17th before finishing with a birdie four.

"I think there are still learnings that you have to take from a day like today," said McIlroy, who found just four fairways, two on each nine.

"Even though the last two days didn't go the way I wanted them to, there are still things that I can take from it, and there are still things that I can learn.

"I'm gonna have to do a lot of practice and a lot of work over the weekend at home to try to at least have a better idea of where my game is  going into next week."

He has a decision to make about his driver before taking on Oakmont's punishing rough, as eight of his ten misses in round two were to the right.

"I didn't hit enough fairways," he said. "I felt like I drove the ball a bit better yesterday than I did today.

"I think once I made that big number on the front nine, I was always behind the eight ball a little. And then, after nine holes, I'd sort of resigned myself to the fact that I'd be flying home to Florida tonight.

"It was just about trying to make a few good swings, seeing where the misses were, and you're trying to sort of learn as much as I could, just looking ahead to next week."

On the driver, he added: "So 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 said to Harry going down the last, this is obviously the second time this year I've tried the new version [of 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."

It was a better day for Shane Lowry, who shot a two-under 68 to go into the weekend tied for seventh, just four shots behind Cameron Champ on eight-under.

Champ shot 66 to lead by two shots on 12-under from Andrew Putnam, who shot a best-of-the-day 62.