Ever since the non-conforming incident at Quail Hollow, Rory McIlroy seems to have been on edge. The Irishman failed to deliver after a last-minute driver change and was struggling to compete in the 2025 PGA Championship. With that, he also went into silent mode, not interacting with the media to clear the air. McIlroy faced a lot of heat for not taking interviews and avoiding the reporters. It seems like he hasn’t learned anything from the incidents, as he continues to act the way he did a few weeks ago.

After another disappointing round that saw him finish at T45 in the 2025 U.S. Open, McIlroy was asked if he would be attending the press conference by a USGA official. The 36-year-old promptly replied in 3 words, “No, I’m good,” before walking off. This comes as a surprise, as McIlroy ended the round quite positively after scoring two birdies in the last four holes to secure a spot for the weekend. Still, he might be cautious about the reporters asking him about his actions on the 17th tee.

He struck the tee box with his club after a disappointing drive into the bunker and broke it. Fans have already bashed him about it. We will have to wait to see if we get a repeat of Quail Hollow in terms of performance, as the 29-time PGA Tour winner had finished at T47 when he last behaved this way. McIlroy is sitting 9 strokes behind Sam Burns, who is at the top of the leaderboard right now.

Overall, Rory McIlroy had a few hits and misses throughout the second round at Oakmont. Let’s see how he performed across the 18 holes on Friday.

Rory McIlroy’s roller-coaster ride at Oakmont Country Club

A week ago, Rory McIlroy confessed to not being able to find the motivation to fight for a win in tournaments. That reflected in his performance in the 2025 RBC Canadian Open, where he slumped to the career worst finish of 149 on the leaderboard after a couple of abysmal rounds of golf. However, the Irishman seemed far more motivated during the first 9 holes at Oakmont yesterday. It seemed that McIlroy was excited to play in tournaments again as he ended the back nine with 2-over par. However, in the second half of the round, facing the front 9, the 36-year-old managed to add 4 bogeys and 1 double bogey to push his score to +4.

His struggles in the front 9 continued as he managed 2 double bogeys and a birdie on Friday. While he did add another bogey on the 11th hole, birdies on the 15th and 18th helped him push through for a cut. While he has done well off the tee and on the green, McIlroy’s weakness at Oakmont has been his approach. He has lost -0.77 strokes from his approach shots in the two rounds, which has resulted in his poor performance. His driving distance has been the best on the field, and he has been 54% accurate at finding the fairway.

Rory McIlroy has excellent GIR stats, putting him 5th in the field in that category. With those numbers, you would think he would be much closer to the top of the table than he actually is. He will need to figure out what’s going wrong in his game if he wants to contend for the 6th major of his career this weekend. Perhaps then he might not deny an interview with the media.