Rory McIlroy: Don't Expect 23-Year-Old to Bounce Back at PGA Championship

Rory McIlroy has quietly been very inconsistent this year, and it wouldn't be surprising if his struggles continued next month at the PGA Championship. 

The Brit entered the year ranked as the No. 1 golfer in the world, and he was playing up to that billing.

After a second-place finish at the Accenture Match Play Championship in February to start the year, McIlroy followed up with a win at the Honda Classic and a third-place finish at the Cadillac Championship.

Three tournaments, three Top-3 finishes. Not too shabby, and certainly nothing but a good sign heading into the Masters, the first major of the year.

After he put up a 71 and 69 to start the week, McIlroy found himself in a tie for third place entering the weekend. Combine his start to the season with a masterfully-played two rounds at Augusta, and you had a player who was starting to look unstoppable. 

But then the collapse. 

McIlroy shot a 77 on Saturday and a 76 on Sunday. He finished five strokes over par in a tie for 40th place. 

Since then, McIlroy has thudded down to earth in the worst way. He finished second at the Wells Fargo Championship, although he lost in a playoff to Rickie Fowler, and seventh at the St. Jude Classic, but other than that, it's been ugly.

Like, Joakim Noah ugly.

McIlroy failed to make the cut at The Players Championship, which is usually regarded as the fifth major, he missed the cut at the Memorial after a second-round 79, he missed the cut at the U.S. Open as the defending champ, and he is now coming off a 60th-place finish at the Open Championship after a solid 67 in the first round.

Yuck.

When McIlroy is on his game, he's a near lock for the Top 10, but seven cuts made in 10 total tournaments—not to mention horrendous performances on the biggest stages—is a feat normally reserved for the 101st best player in the world, not the first. 

McIlroy's putting has taken a huge step forward this year, but he's been hurt by a lack of accuracy off the tee and an inability to hit greens in regulation.

Last year, he hit 60.29 percent of fairways and 68.30 percent of greens in regulations. Those numbers are down to 55.71 and 63.70 percent, respectively, this year. 

This isn't to criticize McIlroy. He is, after all, still just 23 years old. There is cheese in my refrigerator older than him. It's inevitable that players his age are going to have stages of inconsistency along the way.

Instead, this is proof that the hype train might have gotten going a little too fast after Rory's win at the U.S. Open last year, and the inconsistency is coming just a little later than we all thought. 

I'm not going to sit here and tell you McIlroy isn't one of the best golfers in the world, because that simply isn't true. But until the youngster gets out of his current funk, I'm not going to consider him a favorite.

Especially at a major tournament, which has proven to be his kryptonite this season. 

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