Rory McIlroy believes he has pinpointed the reason he's missed two cuts in a row ahead of the 146th Open Championship - it's down to the wind.
The 28-year-old has seen his challenges falter at the halfway stage at both the Irish and Scottish Opens and says that playing in the wind has thrown his swing out of kilter.
With his short game also well below its best, he knows he has it all to do ahead of the start of play at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.
"I think playing in the wind last few weeks has put my alignment out,"
the Telegraph reports McIlroy, who has been using an alignment device on the practice range, as saying.
"And that’s the tricky thing about playing in the wind in the build-up to this event - you run the risk of getting into a few bad habits, just of trying to keep the ball down. That’s what we are trying to iron out."
McIlroy's putting has also come in for some recent criticism and Sky Sports pundit Butch Harmon believes he is trying to be too precise in his short game.
Harmon - echoing
recent comments from Paul McGinley in which the former Ryder Cup captain suggested McIlroy's creativity on the greens has been stifled - says that the Holywood man looks robotic in his putting.
"He doesn’t look relaxed he doesn’t have a flow in it has when he’s winning all those championships it’s almost like everything’s too precise he’s trying to make everything perfect," Harmon said.
"What I’ve seen in the last month and a half every time I watch him he looks very robotic with his putting he doesn’t look relaxed or have that confident look."
McIlroy will tee off with Dustin Johnson, the world number one, and Charl Schwartzel at 2.48pm at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.
