Rory McIlroy Misses Cut at 2018 Players Championship After 2-Over Round 2

Rory McIlroy found the water around the famed island green on the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and the ensuing double-bogey led to a missed cut in the 2018 Players Championship. 

McIlroy, who shot a two-over 74 on Friday and finished one over for the tournament, had briefly pushed himself above the cut line before the splash on the course's trademark hole. 

It's his third missed cut of the year, previously failing to reach the weekend in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Valspar Championship. It's also his fourth career missed cut at the Players, and it extended his streak of finishing outside the top five at golf's "fifth major" to nine. 

McIlroy opened his round with six straight pars, but it turned into a wild ride from there.

The four-time major champion posted four bogeys and three birdies over the next eight holes, including three bogeys in a four-hole stretch starting on the seventh.

He struggled off the tee for the second straight day, and his putting continued to run hot and cold, which put even more pressure on his iron play after it carried him through Round 1.

The PGA Tour highlighted his terrific approach at No. 14 to set up a birdie:

McIlroy, who spent the entire day hovering around the cut line, got back on the right side of it and into red figures with a birdie on the 16th.

The 29-year-old Northern Irishman watched his hopes of making the cut fade away after his tee shot on the penultimate hole came up short of the island green. It was a drastic change of emotions after three birdies over the previous five holes got him back in the mix for a weekend berth.

He needed a hole-out eagle on the last to have a chance to make the cut, but his tee shot was well off line, and his approach came up nearly 20 yards shy of the green to seal his fate.

All told, McIlroy's driving and putting weren't good enough to consistently prevent bogeys, and it cost him on a difficult course with a lot of potential pitfalls, none bigger than the water on No. 17.

He's next scheduled to tee it up in the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship starting May 24 at the Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, England.