Double bogeys still doing damage as Rory McIlroy moves on to Wentworth

McIlroy has hit 22 double bogeys across 14 tournaments in 2026 and it’s clearly something of which he is very much aware

Rory McIlroy after finishing his round on the eighteenth green. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Clohessy.

If it feels like Rory McIlroy has been carding double bogeys all year, well that’s not too far from the truth.

The reigning Masters champion signed for three of them, and a triple bogey, at his first tournament of the year, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, back in February. And he almost matched that level of leakage with four doubles here in Clare this week.

All told, he has hit 22 double bogeys across 14 tournaments in 2026 and it’s clearly something of which he is very much aware given he joked about that accumulation after another couple in round three either side of Donald Trump’s arrival on Saturday.

McIlroy dirtied his scorecard with four across the majors, two of them at Augusta when he retained his title in harum scarum fashion after Jack Nicklaus had told him in no uncertain words that the profligacy must stop if he was to earn another green jacket.

The enigma in Rory is never far away.

Scottie Scheffler suffered a double bogey only once in the majors this year, at the US Open, but the Northern Irishman is a very different beast and its rarely easy to dissect exactly where his head or his heart is at as he continues to juggle golf and life.

Or what form he will find on any given week.

He was two-under after four holes on Thursday but that was it in terms of any charge. Two 69s got him inside the cut with three strokes to spare but a four-over 76 nipped any fanciful talk of a run at the summit on the Saturday.

“I thought I hit the ball pretty well for the most part,” he said after a Sunday 67 that saw him finish this tournament on a distinctly average three-under par.

“There was a couple of destructive shots, a couple of bad decisions off the tees yesterday.

“But, overall, iron play was a lot better. That's getting there. Wedge play was pretty good for the most part this week. Obviously, it was just a struggle on the greens, and that was the big reason why I wasn't able to get myself into contention.”

He had returned to Ireland last week after a pair of top-5 finishes in the BMW Championship and Tour Championship events Stateside and having spoken enthusiastically about how much he enjoys this swing in the season towards Europe and other climes.

Wentworth, his ‘home’ course now that he has a domicile in the UK, beckons for the BMW PGA Championship. The it's two weeks in the Middle East and the DP World India Championship in New Delhi in mid-October.

He owes nobody anything, whatever his form or results.

McIlroy could freewheel from here to Christmas and still look back on that success in Georgia in April and smile, and he has plenty of credit in the bank with his national open at this point having won it twice and rescued it from obscurity once.

His influence is everywhere. Eric Trump credited McIlroy with helping Trump International Golf Links and Hotel get hosting rights for this tournament for the first time but it’s back to the K Club and a mid-summer date in 2027. His thoughts?

“I'll obviously be there. I'll play. But, field-wise, yeah, we'll see. I'm not sure. The Scottish Open is going to be the week after, so a lot of guys are probably going to play that, but I get it. The Ryder Cups in Ireland next year and something had to something had to give.”