Rory McIlroy Needs a Miracle to Make the Cut at Memorial Championship

When Rory McIlroy is off his game, he's really off his game.

After a horrible first round at the 2013 Memorial Championship, it'll take a comeback of epic proportions for the Northern Irishman to avoid missing his second cut in as many weeks. 

McIlroy shot an opening-round 78 at Muirfield Village on Thursday, finishing his round with a score of six over par. According to the Golf Channel on Twitter, it was the worst opening-round performance of McIlroy's career at the Memorial:

Charl Schwartzel is the leader after Round 1, having posted a score of seven under par. Fifty-seven players managed to post scores of even par or better, and, incredibly, only six other golfers posted scores worse than McIlroy on Thursday.

Needless to say, McIlroy is struggling badly right now.

When asked about his poor play, McIlroy was helpless to explain his recent struggles, according to Rex Hoggard of GolfChannel.com: "The game just isn’t all there at the minute...I'm pretty frustrated. I'm trying not to let it get to me. I don’t really have many explanations for this. I felt my game was good. I felt like I was coming in here and hitting the ball well."

Starting out on the back nine, McIlroy looked to be off to a fantastic start when he made birdie on No. 10 to open his round, as the PGA Tour reported:

It was a brilliant way to start the day, but other than his birdie at No. 5 toward the end of his round, there weren't many bright spots in his first round. 

All in all, McIlroy posted two birdies, six bogeys and one double-bogey. 

He only managed to hit 50 percent of his fairways and 61.1 percent of his greens, and he finished the day with 33 total putts for a per-hole average of 2.091, according to PGATour.com's stats.

He's 13 shots off the lead, and it's going to take an incredible effort for him to make the cut to play this weekend. 

In order for McIlroy to turn his fortunes around, he'll need to be much more precise in every aspect of his game. He can't afford to miss fairways and greens, and he'll never make the cut hitting more than two putts per hole.

Right now, McIlroy is playing about as badly as he can play without completely melting down. And while it's not inconceivable that he could find a way to right the ship on Friday, it seems highly unlikely he'll be able to make it happen.

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