{"id":34722,"date":"2026-07-11T03:56:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/34722\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T03:56:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:56:31","slug":"rory-mcilroy-keeps-share-of-lead-at-scottish-open-as-scottie-scheffler-misses-cut-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/34722\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy keeps share of lead at Scottish Open as Scottie Scheffler misses cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy<\/a> will head into the weekend at the Genesis Scottish Open<\/a> in a share of the lead after shooting a second-round 66 on Friday.<\/p>\n

But while the Masters champion made steady progress to reach nine under at the Renaissance Club, it was a disappointing day for Scottie Scheffler<\/a> in North Berwick, as the world number one missed the cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McIlroy sat alongside England’s Jordan Smith, who carded a day’s best seven-under-par 63, and South Korean<\/a> Tom Kim.<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy on the 15th hole at the Renaissance Club (Malcolm Mackenzie\/PA)<\/p>\n

McIlroy almost chipped in for an eagle at the first, settling for a birdie, before picking up three further shots to reach the turn in 31.<\/p>\n

He almost holed his approach to the 13th but then made his only significant mistake of his round as he missed the resulting par putt.<\/p>\n

The 2023 Scottish Open winner quickly made amends as he almost eagled the 14th and was left with a birdie that put him back into that three-way tie for first.<\/p>\n

McIlroy said on Sky Sports: “I thought I played well again. The wind definitely got up in the afternoon but I got off to a really nice start.<\/p>\n

“By the turn the wind had got to its strongest and it was hard to get the ball close to the pins and we were all just making a lot of pars.<\/p>\n

“It would have been nice to be a couple better but it’s obviously another solid day and I’m in a great position. I’m excited for the weekend.”<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

Jordan Smith also has a share of the lead (Malcolm Mackenzie\/PA)<\/p>\n

Smith surged into contention with a sparkling round that included a run of four successive birdies from the 11th.<\/p>\n

That left him one ahead of Matt Fitzpatrick, whose round of 65 featured a run of five straight birdies, and Australia’s Min Woo Lee.<\/p>\n

Robert MacIntyre<\/a>, the 2024 winner who was playing alongside McIlroy and defending champion Chris Gotterup, finished on seven under after a 66. Gotterup, who also won the John Deere Classic last weekend, joined him by carding 65.<\/p>\n

US Open champion Wyndham Clark and Danny Willett were among the players on six under.<\/p>\n

The cut came at two under, meaning a far-from-ideal Royal Birkdale preparation for defending Open champion Scheffler.<\/p>\n

The American will have to content himself with an early look at the Merseyside links ahead of next week’s final major of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Scottie<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler failed to make the cut (Malcolm Mackenzie\/PA)<\/p>\n

Scheffler needed a birdie at the par-three ninth, his final hole, to make the weekend but failed to hole a chip from just off the green and missed a six-foot par putt.<\/p>\n

He admitted his plans had now changed.<\/p>\n

“A little different to what I was planning,” he said. “I’ll figure out how to get down to Birkdale and kind of go from there.”<\/p>\n

Also missing out were US PGA champion Aaron Rai<\/a>, newly-crowned US Senior Open winner Padraig Harrington and fellow Irishman Shane Lowry, and another recent Open champion in Xander Schauffele.<\/p>\n

Spain’s Jon Rahm<\/a>, who was five over after 11 holes on Thursday, continued his recovery as he shot 65 to make the cut on two under.<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy will head into the weekend at the Genesis Scottish Open in a share of the lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[14324,2184,1592,1723,399,208,1578],"class_list":["post-34722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scottie-scheffler","tag-2023-scottish-open-winner","tag-jordan-smith","tag-open-champion","tag-renaissance-club","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-scottish-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}