Paul McGinley says Rory McIlroy’s problems ‘between ears’

Asking what’s wrong with Rory McIlroy is a bit like that old joke about George Best, Miss World and the bed in £50 notes. When a player racks up six Top-10 finishes from nine stroke-play starts, there really shouldn’t be any reason to start pressing any alarm bells.

But when that player is four-time major winner and former world No 1 McIlroy, it’s becoming increasingly obvious something is eating the pride of Holywood, Co Down.

If he doesn’t break a run of three successive missed cuts in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and lift the title at The K Club on Sunday evening, McIlroy will have gone six months without winning a tournament.