For the first time since The Open Championship last July, Rory McIlroy will miss the weekend of a PGA TOUR event.

And it wasn’t just any missed cut. McIlroy shot 71-78 and lost more than 10 strokes to the field, the second-worst mark of his career.

It’s a jarring result for McIlroy, who has put together a stellar season (including no missed cuts). His worst finish before this was a T47 in his previous start at the PGA Championship. Before that, he had not finished outside the top 20.

It was disastrous early in McIlroy’s round. The world No. 2 made a quadruple-bogey on the par-4 fifth hole, blowing his second shot over and the green and out of bounds. After taking a one-stroke penalty, McIlroy hit another shot over the green, hit a pitch shot long, chipped onto the green and two-putted to make an eight.

McIlroy dropped shots on Nos. 8 and 10, then made a double-bogey on the par-3 11th, failing to clear the water hazard with his tee shot. He made two more bogeys en route to his 8-over round. His lone birdies came at the 15th and 18th holes, well past when his fate was decided. The 10.6 strokes he lost to the field over two rounds was the second-worst of his career, behind only the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship, when he lost 13.22 strokes to the field.

It’s not the form McIlroy hoped to take into the U.S. Open at Oakmont, which will be set up to expose any weakness. McIlroy’s typically stellar driving was absent at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. McIlroy hit less than 50% of his fairways and ranked outside the top 140 in strokes gained. It follows a trend that began at the PGA Championship when McIlroy was forced to switch drivers after his previous one failed a characteristic time test.

McIlroy will need to have a short memory and find quick form if he hopes to contend next week. He will have an unexpected weekend free to help work out the kinks before heading up to Pennsylvania for the U.S. Open.

“Of course it concerns me. You don't want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn't,” McIlroy said. “ Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn't. Yeah, that's a concern going into next week.”

McIlroy wasn’t the only big name to head home early at the RBC Canadian Open. Justin Rose was assessed a two-stroke penalty during his second round for accidentally moving his ball, then failing to return his golf ball to its original position. Rose finished the tournament 1-under, meaning he would have made the cut without the penalty. Max Homa also missed the cut. He finished 2-under, one shot off the cutline. He missed a 13-foot birdie attempt on the 18th to make the weekend.