The China Mail - Scheffler misses first cut in four years as McIlroy leads at Scottish Open

One consolation for Scheffler is his exit gives him more time to become familiar with the Royal Birkdale course near Liverpool where he will begin the defence of his British Open title, the oldest of golf's four major championships, next week.

The four-time major winner arrived in North Berwick, near Edinburgh, bidding for a first win on Scottish soil but a second-round 72, two over par, finished a sequence of made cuts that had lasted for 1,428 days.

By contrast, Rory McIlroy posted 66 to retain a share of the lead.

The Northern Irishman, who became just the sixth player in golf history to complete a career Grand Slam of major titles with victory in the US Masters in April, is tied at the top of the leaderboard with Englishman Jordan Smith -- who posted an impressive 63 on Friday -- and South Korea's Tom Kim.

Scheffler bowed out on level par, two strokes shy of the cut. He needed a chip-in birdie on the last to have any hope of reaching the third round, but ended with a bogey instead.

The 30-year-old American's departure meant he failed to make the weekend of a PGA Tour event -- the Scottish Open is a co-sanctioned tournament -- for the first time since the 2022 FedEx St Jude Championship.

"A little different to what I was planning," said Scheffler. "I'll figure how to get down to Birkdale and kind of go from there.

"This week I really wanted to play well and this is a golf course I feel like I can play well on –- I just haven't for some reason.

"It could be one of those things where you just get over jet-lag, get used to a new style of golf, and maybe I just haven't adjusted as quick or this golf course just doesn't suit my eye much," he added.

Jon Rahm, in his first PGA Tour event outside the majors since his controversial move to LIV in 2023 shot a second-round 65 to get to two under and make the cut, having been five over after 11 holes on Thursday.

D.Wang--ThChM