India, July 18 -- There were no "I'm so bad at golf" exclamations from Rory McIlroy this time. The puzzled looks, shakes of the head and sagging shoulders said it all.

McIlroy was just 10 holes into his bid to win the British Open for the first time since 2014 and he was veering dangerously close to playing himself out of title contention. Missing one putt from four feet wasn't necessarily unusual. But doing it three times? In the space of four holes? That trio of bewildering close-range mishaps - on Numbers 7, 8 and 10 - came either side of McIlroy driving the green to make birdie on the 415-yard Number 9. Go figure.

And it pretty much summed up the world Number 2's wild late-afternoon ride in a 2-over 72 that included six bogeys and l...