Rory v Tiger moves to undercard

A week ago Rory McIlroy was being hailed as part of the only show in town, a prizefighter given top billing, primed for a title tilt against his arch rival Tiger Woods.

Last night, as both players signed for their final rounds while the climax to the Masters was only just building, McIlroy and Woods were indeed difficult to separate, but both had been well and truly demoted to the Augusta National undercard.

The thrills and spills of this 76th Masters had for the most part evaded US Open champion McIlroy, who bowed out of a tournament he had so agonisingly let slip 12 months earlier with a final-round 76 that left him five over for the week.

The Irishman’s undoing had come on Saturday when, having started the third round in contention at four under par, he set the tone for a disappointing day by double-bogeying the opening hole on the way to a five over 77.

McIlroy had begun his Easter Sunday watching his beloved Ulster upset the odds and defeat Munster at Thomond Park to reach the Heineken Cup semi-finals. There would, however be no such defiance of the fates where his golf was concerned a few hours later.

Playing alongside his friend and countryman Graeme McDowell, McIlroy never got the momentum he needed to mount a run up the leaderboard.

He bogeyed the first and his putting deserted him for the second round in succession as he missed a short, four-foot par putt at the fifth and added another bogey at the seventh.

And even when a birdie finally arrived, at the par-four ninth, there followed bogey-double bogey immediately after it. One more bogey came at the 14th and an encouraging finish of birdie-par-birdie-par, but dreams of a green jacket will have to wait for another year.

“It was a disappointing weekend, just one of those things,” McIlroy said. “I played pretty well the first couple of days then just came out on Saturday and really just didn’t have it that front nine, and that sort of killed me for the rest of the tournament.

“But I’ll come back next year and try my best again.”

In the meantime, McIlroy will turn his focus on retaining the US Open title he won at Congressional Country Club last June when the 2012 championship takes place in San Francisco at Olympic.

“I’ll take a couple of weeks off, reflect and think about anything that I tried to that I didn’t do so well and try and put it right and just try and get back at it and prepare for the US Open.

“That’s one I really do try and get myself up for,” he said. “Just got to go out to San Francisco and try to get another major.”

Woods had been the pre-tournament favourite after his first official PGA Tour win in 30 months last month in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, but he also finished at five over following a 74 that delivered the four-time champion his highest Masters finish in 16 starts as a professional.

“I didn’t hit the ball very good this week and what’s frustrating as I know what to do and I just don’t do it. I get out there and I just don’t trust it at all. I fall back into the same old patterns again and I just need to do more reps. Thank God my short game was good this week and my putting was really good. Unfortunately they were all for pars, not for birdies. If I look back on the week, I played the par-fives atrociously. This is a golf course you just have to dominate the par fives and I did not do that at all this week.”