Rory McIlroy at Honda Classic 2015: Daily Scores and Leaderboard Updates

After playing in two events on the European Tour, Rory McIlroy's hiatus from the PGA Tour ended with his appearance in the 2015 Honda Classic. The world's top-ranked player always faces high expectations, so he has a lot to live up to right out of the gate.     

It doesn't help ease McIlroy's burden that he won the Dubai Desert Classic and finished second at the HSBC Golf Championship in January. 

Speaking to reporters before the Honda Classic, via ESPN.com's Bob Harig, McIlroy said that his schedule early in the year was designed to get him ready for his first trek to America this weekend:

"

I feel like I've got a nice scheduling going into Augusta. I'm not playing too much, but I'm playing just enough that I should be as sharp as possible going in there.

I haven't thought about [the Masters]. What I really thought about over the past couple of weeks is getting ready for these events coming up, which is going to be here, Doral and Bay Hill, and trying to play as well as I possibly can in those. So that gives me a little confidence going into a little break to prepare as well as I can for Augusta.

"

With that being the motivation, here's the leaderboard and how McIlroy has fared at Palm Beach Gardens. 

Honda Classic Leaderboard

Round 2 Scorecard and Recap

Hole	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Par	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	5
Score	5	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	6
Total	+4	+4	+4	+4	+4	+4	+4	+4	+5
Par	4	4	5	4	3	4	3	4	4
Score	4	4	5	4	2	5	4	4	5
Total	+5	+5	+5	+5	+4	+5	+6	+6	+7

Any hope of McIlroy getting off to a fast start in Round 2 of the Honda Classic was quickly squashed as he bogeyed his opening hole. By day's end, he had followed up a poor opening round with a similar effort on Friday. A 4-over 74 (+7 overall) left him four shots off the cut line.

The second round was delayed twice by rain, which means all of the players won't be able to finish until Saturday. It's simply delaying the inevitable, however, as three bogeys over the final four holes means the world's top-ranked player is set to miss the cut.

Justin Ray of the Golf Channel compared his cut numbers on the PGA Tour to those of Tiger Woods:

It's a surprising drop in form for McIlroy. In two events on the European Tour this year, he finished first and second with a combined score of 40-under par. Those performances gave off the vibe that he might be in for a monster season.

This week's result shows it's not as easy as he makes it look sometimes. His ball-striking was a bit off throughout both rounds, leaving him fewer easy looks to drop strokes, and the changing conditions probably didn't help, either.

The latter issue can't be solely blamed based on the strong play of Patrick Reed in a nearby group, as noted by Stephanie Wei of SI Golf:

Ron Green Jr. of Global Golf Post passed along comments from McIlroy after the round:

Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel certainly doesn't see any reason to panic:

That's the bottom line. McIlroy has been in a class of his own more often than not lately. He's probably going to enter all of the majors this season as the favorite, especially if the aforementioned Woods isn't able to work out his recent problems.

The Northern Irishman wasn't able to find his usual rhythm in the early going. And whenever there was a brief opening for him to make up some ground he couldn't capitalize. Put those two factors together and it equals an early exit.

Don't be surprised if he ends up right back near the top of the leaderboard next time out. This was likely just a blip on the radar.

Round 1 Scorecard and Recap

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Hole	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	4	5	4	3	4	3	4	4
Score	6	4	4	5	5	4	3	3	4
Total	+2	+2	+1	+2	+4	+4	+4	+3	+3
Par	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	5
Score	4	5	4	4	5	3	4	2	4
Total	+3	+4	+4	+4	+5	+5	+5	+4	+3

McIlroy's start to the PGA Tour season had more than its share of hiccups. He came out of the gate wrong with a double bogey on the first hole and followed that up by going bogey, double bogey on Nos. 4 and 5, though there was a birdie thrown in on No. 3. 

Even though golf has a way of humbling players in a hurry, this is still a stunning result for McIlroy. He came into the Honda Classic on as much of a role as any player could possibly be and finds himself eight shots behind leader Jim Herman. 

Jason Sobel of the Golf Channel has the numbers of what McIlroy had done in his previous 12 tournaments before Thursday:

Since the focus for the moment is on McIlroy's previous 12 events, SportsCenter tweeted out this quote from Tom Rinaldi about how the 25-year-old has finished in his last dozen tournaments:

If there is something positive to take away from McIlroy's effort, he did settle down after the fifth hole by going one-under par on the final 13 holes with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 to build momentum heading into the second round. 

Granted, as this graphic from PGA Tour Now shows, McIlroy was all over the map (literally) on the first nine holes:

For all the problems McIlroy had with his long game, the putter was working. Here's evidence from the PGA Tour's official Twitter on the 17th hole:

The bad news is you can't take out those first five holes that sank him and made a victory seem like a near-impossibility. In fact, per ESPN Stats & Info, McIlroy's history suggests that he has no chance to make a comeback:

Another surprising aspect of McIlroy's performance today is how successful he had been at the Honda Classic in his career. He won the 2012 event with a score of 12-under par and was part of the four-way playoff won by Russell Henley in 2014. 

For those people ready to jump off the McIlroy bandwagon, keep in mind that sandwiched in between his Honda Classic performance last year was a 17th-place finish at the Accenture Match Play event and 25th-place finish at the Cadillac Championship. 

For all the problems McIlroy had on Thursday, he certainly wasn't alone. Sobel tweeted out what the rest of the Irish star's talented group shot in the first round:

This certainly is a round that McIlroy won't put on his highlight reel anytime soon, but he's one of the few players perfectly capable of accepting a bad start before turning things around. Being able to compartmentalize is essential in sports, especially golf. 

McIlroy will have to fight his way back on Friday to make the cut, but even that could take a backseat to making better ball strikes. He was erratic off the tee, so making sure the driver is working has to be his top priority.