No drive or driver: McIlroy limps into Oakmont looking for answers

Rory McIlroy collapsed on the 18th green at Augusta National 57 days ago, overcome with emotion after finally ending his 11-year major drought and completing the career grand slam.

The moment was a combination of immense joy and seismic relief as McIlroy finally answered the major question that had been dogging him for over a decade. It was supposed to open the floodgates for the 36-year-old and allow him to rack up more majors without the 1,000-pound gorilla on his shoulders.

Only, it didn't. In fact, the opposite occurred.

Whether it be issues finding a new drive or driver, McIlroy looks increasingly like a man who doesn't know what he's pushing for after completing the last major accomplishment to cap a storied career. He even admitted as much last week before teeing off in the Canadian Open.

"I would certainly say that the last few weeks, I've had a couple weeks off, and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be," McIlroy told ASAP Sports. "You have this event in your life that you've worked toward, and it happens; sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again."

Those comments turned out to be very prescient. An opening-round 71 on a pillow-soft TPC Toronto layout may have raised an eyebrow, but it was his second round that captured everyone's full attention.

On a course yielding plenty of low scores, McIlroy ballooned to an 8-over 78 to miss the cut in 149th place. That left him ahead of just two players on the leaderboard - neither currently a full-time member of the PGA TOUR. It was his worst TOUR finish and ended his consecutive cuts streak at 18.

McIlroy's whole game was a mess, but his main issue is his continued woes with the driver - the club that's contributed more to his illustrious career than any other.

Everyone should be well-versed by now on his driver failing a conformity test in the lead-up to the PGA Championship. McIlroy wasn't the only one on that list - tournament winner Scottie Scheffler also found his way on it - but his name was the only one that got leaked to the media during the tournament.

He has legitimate beef, but now he has bigger issues to address - mainly his search for a club he's comfortable with.

McIlroy hit just three fairways total in his first round at the PGA Championship. That poor performance was downright shocking considering the event was at Quail Hollow, where he'd already won four times. He finished that event 68th out of 74 players in driving accuracy and placed 47th on the leaderboard.

While that should have been the story for McIlroy at Quail Hollow, the focus shifted to his decision to skip media day during all four days. It's not rare for a golfer to pass on press after a round, but doing it all four days is certainly an odd choice, especially given McIlroy's very warm relationship with the golf media. Even given the news of the failed driver test, he wasn't exactly facing an interrogation at a Congressional hearing.

McIlroy further muddied the waters by opting to skip the Memorial Tournament, the third signature event of the season he's passed on. The news came as a surprise to everyone, including tournament host Jack Nicklaus. McIlroy has earned the right to choose his schedule, but it was just another thing that attracted more attention.

McIlroy put his decision to skip the media to bed prior to the Canadian Open, saying there were timing issues and that he didn't want to say something he'd regret about the driver test. However, his issues with the driver remained.

He finished the Canadian Open 130th in the field in Data Golf's strokes gained: off the tee, a shocking number considering he's second on TOUR this season in that category.

"Yeah, of course it concerns me. You don't want to shoot high scores like the one I did today," McIlroy said after his second-round 78, according to ASAP Sports. "Obviously, going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously, for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now, that isn't. Yeah, that's a concern going into next week."

McIlroy vowed to test a number of drivers all weekend ahead of Oakmont in hopes of straightening that part of his game out. If - and that seems like a big if - he can rekindle the driving form we've seen throughout his career, he should be a major threat to win a second U.S. Open. He has six straight top-10 showings in the event, just one shy of the all-time record.

However, there's also the possibility that the Masters hangover is still lingering, and the McIlroy we saw in the first four months of the season is still a long way from returning. After all, who among us hasn't celebrated a momentous achievement by carrying on the celebration just a little bit too long?