Carl Frampton takes Rory McIlroy’s mind off putting woes

Rory McIlroy put his woes to one side in Brooklyn Saturday night as he watched boxer Carl Frampton upset the odds and become a two-weight world champion. But the golfer knows the thrills of the ring will not ease his on-course problems.

McIlroy, 27, was at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to see fellow Northern Irishman Frampton defeat Leo Santa Cruz on points for the WBA featherweight crown 24 hours after missing his second major cut of the year. He had crashed out of the PGA Championship with a last-hole bogey across the Hudson River in New Jersey as his bid for a fifth major title of his career was shelved for another eight months.

The Irishman has now gone two seasons without adding one and will now have to wait until next April’s Masters to try and bridge the gap from his back-to-back triumphs in 2014 at The Open and US PGA.