Projecting Rory McIlroy's Day 4 Score at 2013 US Open

Rory McIlroy continued to show his inconsistency on Day 3 of the 2013 U.S. Open. It is unlikely that the fourth round goes any better for the former champion.

The 24-year-old golfer had a chance to get back into contention after starting Saturday only four strokes off the lead. Fans were excited for the possibility of a strong performance from him and Tiger Woods in Round 3 after being paired together in the same group.

Unfortunately, these superstars did not live up to expectations. Dan Jenkins of Golf Digest takes a look at the poor showing from both players:

McIlroy's 75 included only two birdies, and his seven bogies pushed him far out of contention. As the PGATour Twitter account noted, he got off to a strong start but couldn't keep up the momentum:

After a birdie on the first hole, he added four bogeys in the next five holes to really hurt his score. Many of his shots off the tee ended up looking like this:

This led to the most surprising statistic of the day, that the round took longer than five hours to complete, according to Brian Keogh of Irish Golf Desk:

However, it was not just the long rough at Merion that ruined McIlroy's day. Even when he was hitting fairways and greens, he could not finish with his putting.

His struggles at the end of holes have hurt McIlroy throughout the year. According to PGATour.com, he is losing strokes in every round with his putting, which ranks 123rd on tour. This has continued into the U.S. Open, where he has missed a bunch of makeable putts.

While this would be less of a problem if he was getting greens in regulation, getting to that point has been a struggle as well. This short course makes his great driving strength useless, and his lack of accuracy has become a huge factor.

This will continue to be a problem in the fourth day at the U.S. Open, where he remains out of contention, far behind the current leaders:

The good news is that McIlroy has refused to give up this year. His fourth-round score has been equal to or better than his third round in every tournament this season. He should be able to continue this streak as he produces a slightly better score than his 75 on Sunday.

McIlroy will struggle a bit off the tee and on the greens, but he still has as much of an ability to post birdies as anyone in the tournament. He should get a few birdies, although more bogeys will ruin the round.

Expect the young star to get a 74 in the round as he looks to complete another disappointing tournament in a rough year.

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