World No. 2 Rory McIlroy displayed his continuing frustration with his game bending a club in playing his approach shot into the 12th hole on the last day at Merion.

McIlroy watched as his ball headed towards Baffling Brook to the left of the green.

Then with both hands on the club that was placed on the ground, the double Major winner then performed what was like a leap frog over the club but in doing do he bent the shaft.

Rory McIlroy on route to a final round 76 playing with 13 clubs. (Photo – www.pgatour.com)

McIlroy realised his mistake then tried to bend the club back into shape but under the Rules of Golf he could no longer play the club given he had purposely altered the characteristics of the iron.  It also meant McIlroy playing the last six holes with 13 clubs.

McIlroy ended up taking an ‘8’ and one of his highest individual hole scores for some time and resulting in the 24-year crashing to 13-over par and in an event he won two years ago at Congressional.

McIlroy later admitted frustration had got the better of him.

“I just hit a bad tee shot into the creek there and what you don’t want to do as a golfer is follow one mistake with another, and that’s what I did,” McIlroy said who closed with a horror 76.

“And obviously I got a bit frustrated there.

“It’s a hole that you want to try to take advantage of. It’s a hole that you want to at least give yourself a birdie chance and you walk off with a quad and it’s not very good.

“I think that’s what this tournament does to you. At one point or another it’s got the better of you, and it definitely did this weekend.”

Earlier at the fifth hole, McIlroy threw his club after a bad shot.

The 2011 U.S. Open champion also said that the pin locations on Sunday were on the “edge” of being unfair.

“I can see the [USGA] trying to protect the scores and stuff,” he said.

“But the pin position on seven today, for example, was on the back of a slope.

“At least put it a couple of yards down so it’s on the flat part of the green. They decided to put it on a ridge. It’s a U.S. Open.”

But while McIlroy’s game remains in serious need of attention, medics were called to the third hole when Luke Donald struck a female spectator with his second shot at the third hole.

Sara Clark, a standard bearer, was hit in the left elbow and knocked to the ground near the bunker. She needed an ice pack at the medical tent before she was released. She did not return to the course.