Rory McIlroy ruined his perfect PGA Championship record missing the cut with a clumsy finish in the year’s final major at Baltusrol in New Jersey.

The two-time PGA winner had not sat out the weekend rounds in seven prior PGA Championships but McIlroy spoilt that stat with a miserable bogey from the middle of the fairway at the last in a round of 69 for a three over par tally.

McIlroy went into the Baltusrol second round lying well back placed in 120^th spot on the board before finally knocking in his first birdie and 22 holes since starting out on Thursday.

But then like having waited ages for the No. 18 bus and two turn up at the same time, McIlroy sent a booming 324-yard drive down the sixth and then stuck a 145-yard second shot to just four feet for a second birdie.

Double PGA winner  Rory McIlroy heading for the weekend off as defending champion Jason Day puts himself into contention on day two of the 98th PGA Championship held at the Baltusrol Golf Club on July 29, 2016 in Springfield, New Jersey. (Photo by Scott Halleran/The PGA of America)

It got McIlroy back to two over par and he headed to the back nine then inside the cut with nine holes to play and keeping alive his record of never having missed the cut in the year’s final Major in eight starts.

McIlroy holed a two-footer for birdie at 11 but then found a fairway bunker at 13 from where he would take bogey to drop back to three over par.

And if rub salt further into McIlroy’s Baltusrol’s wound he hit a stunning tee shot to some five feet at the par three, 16^th but horribly missed his birdie putt.

SKY Sports commentator, Butch Harmon remarked:  “Rory just looks out of sorts and very uncharacteristic of him”.

With two par fives to finish, McIlroy needed to finish birdie, birdie and he did that holing a 35-foot gem at 17 and then at the last put a 5-iron right of the green.

From there McIlroy duffed his chip shot from where he took a further two shots and par when he should have walked off at worst with a birdie.

“I thought I needed to make 4, so that’s what I was trying to do,” he said.

“It was a tough lie. It was a tough lie. I hit the first one as hard as I really could considering how close the pin was to the edge of the green.

“I thought when I birdied 4, at least got my first birdie of the week and kept going from there. Played well, fairways, greens, made another one on 6. But I just, yeah, just need to do a lot of work.”

Then when asked to sum up his season, with his only victory to date being the Irish Open, McIlroy said: “Disappointing.”

It left 2008 PGA champ Padraig Harrington as the only Irish player from six to play all four rounds.

Harrington holed a testing six-footer at his last in a round of 70 after earlier posting a 71 to end of run of three missed cuts in the past three years of the season’s final Major.

European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke had the crowd at the last standing when he drained a 16-footer for eagle to head to the first hole, and the 10^th of his round, at three over par.

But a bogey straight after the eagle looked as though Clarke was headed for an early exit and signing for a 71 for a five over par total.

Joining him was Shane Lowry who has missed a third cut in succession posting scores of 72 and 73 for a five over par tally.

Included in Lowry’s second round was just one birdie but also four bogeys.

Five weeks ago the Clara golfer looked very impressive in finishing runner-up to Dustin Johnson before then posting a final day 68 to finish T36th a week later in the defence of his WGC – Bridgestone Invitational crown.

But since then Lowry slumped to sit out the weekend rounds in the Scottish Open, the following week’s Open Championship and now the year’s final Major.

Also it has put the brakes on Lowry’s hope of qualifying automatically for the September 30^th starting Ryder Cup.

And Lowry knows that unless he muscles his way inside the top-nine qualifiers he won’t be getting a Hazeltine wildcard pick.

It’s much the same scenario now with Graeme McDowell with his indifferent summer continuing with Baltusrol scores of 74 and 75 with a nine over par tally.

McDowell never recovered from a second round opening starting double bogey.

‘G Mac’ backed himself to break into the European Team on the back of seven events before the birth of his second child starting with the FedEx St. Jude Classic starting of June 9^th and up to an including this week’s PGA Championship.

But while he finished T18th in the U.S. Open, missed the cut in the French Open ended T10th in the Scottish Open, missed the cut in Memphis, finished T63rd at Royal Troon but then sat out the weekend rounds in last week’s RBC Canadian Open and now the PGA.

He’s currently 41^st on the ‘European’ Ryder Cup points list and 18^th on the ‘World’ points list and unless McDowell can turn up the wick in the FedEx Cup Play-Off Series then it will be the first time since making his debut in 2008 he will not qualify automatically for the European Team.