Rory McIlroy avoids ‘big downer’ as he makes the cut at Australian Open 2025

Rory McIlroy entered the Crown Australian Open 2025 as the outright favorite. However, the World No.2 golfer’s weekend had a rough start after he opened with a round 72 at the Royal Melbourne GC in Melbourne on Thursday. On Friday, he fought back by shooting a 3 under 68 in round 2 to avoid a near-nightmare missed cut, admitting that an early exit would have been a ‘big downer.’

McIlroy saw an early exit in arguably the biggest Australian Open in the past 30 years, based on the stacked field. The Masters champion, who completed his career Grand Slam with the Augusta win in April, swung one shot outside the cutline aftre making an airswing in the trees on the par-5 14th that led to a bogey. However, the Northern Irishman managed to salvage his round on Friday by grabbing the first of three birdies over his last four holes.

He sat 28th on the leaderboard, seven strokes off leaders Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (66) and Daniel Rodrigues (64), who finished Friday at nine-under.

Rory McIlroy said on Friday, as quoted by Australian Golf Digest:

“Absolutely (relieved); I think it would have been a big downer for everyone involved if I wasn’t here for the weekend… I needed to play those last four holes the way I did. That was not one of my finer moments on 14. I can’t remember the last time I had a fresh air (swing). I was trying to get in really low sort of like Seve (Ballesteros), flick it back into play, and I caught a branch on the way down and completely missed the ball.”

McIlroy breathed a sigh of relief after staring at an embarrasing early exit in front of over 25,000 fans down under. Despite this, the 2013 Australian Open champion exuded confidence in the weekend to come.

He added:

“I don’t feel like I’m that far behind. I certainly haven’t had my best stuff and I struggled with the speed (of the greens), but I turned it on when I needed to. I’ll go out early tomorrow, hopefully in some good conditions, shoot a low one and get myself back in there. Another two rounds around this place, I think I’m getting a little more comfortable with what to do around here and maybe shots to take on.”