Why Saturday at the Scottish Open could be a worrying sign of what is to come for Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy may have only played eight holes on Saturday of the Scottish Open, but that was still enough for the Northern Irishman to take himself out of contention at The Renaissance Club.

It was difficult to see how anyone could stop McIlroy in North Berwick. He was nine under par at the halfway stage of an event he has a tremendous record at.

With the weather delaying the start of his third round by several hours on Saturday, it was clear that McIlroy was going to struggle to play 18 holes.

Nevertheless, the 37-year-old unfortunately had enough time to tumble down the leaderboard before the haar rolled back in and brought an early end to play.

It may be a problem that McIlroy could have to get a little more used to.

Rory McIlroy played himself out of the Scottish Open over eight chaotic holes on Saturday

It is part of McIlroy’s charm that he does experience those days where nothing seems to go right. During his 11-year wait for a fifth major win, there were times when there seemed to be as much chance of him missing the cut as actually winning at the four biggest events of the year.

But something felt slightly different in the third round of the Scottish Open.

McIlroy made three bogeys before the horn called time on the day. He hit his tee shot on the par three fifth hole fat, leaving himself around 40 yards for his second shot.

He went on to hack his way up the par five seventh hole and made a bogey. McIlroy holed a 15-foot putt for par on the next to avoid dropping yet another shot.

It was jarring to see McIlroy go backwards so rapidly. He made a number of sloppy mistakes that perhaps may not have happened had the six-time major champion not been playing a limited schedule.

Rory McIlroy may have taken inspiration from Justin Rose as new chapter in his career begins

McIlroy’s Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose appears to have made peace with the fact that he is going to have some extremely poor weeks on the PGA Tour.

Rose has missed four cuts this year, while he has finished inside the top 25 at only half of his events.

Given that he won at Torrey Pines and contended, once again, at The Masters, you would imagine that Rose is prepared to accept the bad weeks at this stage of his career.

McIlroy is not quite there yet. However, he has clearly created his own trade-off now that he is not playing a huge amount on the PGA Tour.

McIlroy is delighted to have more balance in his life. But even in the fog at the Scottish Open, it was clear to see what he has sacrificed by not playing more often.

There are likely to be days when McIlroy makes a number of uncharacteristic mistakes that remind everyone that he is mortal. It is going to be even harder to build momentum across tournaments.

McIlroy is not going to look back on this stage of his career and wish he had played more after devoting himself to the game for the best part of two decades.

But it feels somewhat fitting that it is at The Renaissance Club that McIlroy has been reminded of what he is giving up by reinventing himself at this stage of his career.