Rory McIlroy says he has no regrets about his flameout second round of 80 at the British Open which may have cost him a chance at the Claret Jug


“No, it’s not going to give me nightmares. I’m sure I’ll wake up in the morning and just look at, I was 16-under-par for three rounds of golf around St Andrews in the Open, and (had) just one bad round. It’s fine.”

His compatriot Graeme McDowell, said the experience will help McIlroy in the future

“Somewhere along the line, it’ll help him. There’s no doubt about that. Friday was unfair, to be honest. It was an unfairly testing day for the boys out there. He’ll pull on those experiences at some point, they will stand him in good stead. They hurt at the time.

McIlroy did admit to some disappointment however.

“I knew I had a good chance coming in here, and it was nice to be there for a while. I’m still a bit disappointed, to be honest, because I know it if I could have played anywhere decent on Friday, I could have been a lot closer to the lead. I’m not saying I could have got to 17-under . . .

“But when you start off shooting a 63 in any golf tournament, you fancy your chances going into the next three days. It just so happened it got very windy on Friday and I didn’t deal with it very well.”