Rory McIlroy Makes Concerning Admission Before U.S. Open

On Thursday, June 5, Rory McIlroy fired a 1-over, 71 in the first round of the RBC Canadian Open - his first tournament since the PGA Championship, where he finished 3-over and 15 shots back of Scottie Scheffler, who went on to win the tournament.

McIlroy woke up in need of a four-under, 66 on Friday, June 6 to make the cut after a tough first round. Instead, the grand slam winner started his second round with four straight pars before carding a quadruple bogey on No. 5. He found two birdies on the back-nine, but also added three more bogeys and a double-bogey to finish with an 8-over, 78 while missing the cut by 12 shots.

Following the round, the new grand slam winner admitted the brutal round "concerns" him ahead of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.

"Of course it concerns me," McIlroy said. "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 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. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee."

McIlroy's struggles with the driver come after he was forced to change drivers ahead of the PGA Championship. 

"I was a little pi--ed off because I knew that Scottie [Scheffler's] driver had failed on Monday, but my name was the one that was leaked," he said earlier this week. "It was supposed to stay confidential. Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it. Again, I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because I'm trying to protect Scottie. I don't want to mention his name. I'm trying to protect TaylorMade. I'm trying to protect the USGA, PGA of America, myself."

He's clearly still working on finding the right driver combination ahead of the year's third major title.