Rory McIlroy Tumbles Down 2020 US Open Leaderboard with 2nd-Round 76

Rory McIlroy entered the clubhouse following his first-round 67 at Winged Foot Golf Club on Thursday knowing he took advantage of a course that wouldn't remain so tame all weekend. 

Friday showed just how right he was. 

The second round of play saw McIlroy post a 76 and walk off the course at three over par and tied for 22nd place—seven shots off the lead. 

"I wouldn't call it scoreable by any stretch of the imagination," McIlroy told reporters after his first round. "There's a couple of guys that have went a little lower than maybe was expected, but it's not as if the rest of the field are finding it that easy."

Even just mentioning the word "easy" at Winged Foot seemed to anger the grounds. 

McIlroy hit just 64 percent of his fairways on Friday and made only half of his greens in regulation. He wasn't alone, as half of the 144-man field found greens in regulation 50 percent of the time during the second round. 

Even when McIlroy did everything right, he still couldn't get his shots to fall. 

Nowhere was this better demonstrated than on No. 5, where he nearly pulled off a birdie from the bunker— only to watch his shot roll over the cup and down the green to finish with a bogey.

The overall numbers showed just how daunting Winged Foot became seemingly overnight. 

During the first round of play, there were 375 birdies, 1,536 pars, 594 bogeys and 76 double bogeys recorded. 

By the time McIlroy finished his second round—with a number of groups still in action—those numbers dramatically shifted to 266 birdies, 1,371 pars, 778 bogeys and 103 double bogeys.

The Northern Irishman did his fair share in adding to those totals. 

The 31-year-old may have started off Friday with a birdie, but he followed it up by going bogey-bogey-double bogey-bogey through five holes.

Less than 24 hours after he escaped the Mamaroneck, New York, course with one bogey and four birdies, McIlroy lost his grip on a top-five spot on the leaderboard and dropped 17 positions. 

The good news is the he's safely past the cut line with two more days left. Not all the top golfers in the field were so lucky. Even with the cut line at six over par, Tiger Woods, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood, Phil Mickelson and reigning champion Gary Woodland were unable to get to Saturday. 

McIlroy may have tumbled during his second round, but the way Winged Foot tortured the field on Friday, it could've been much worse.