Rory McIlroy has a swing and miss at Royal Melbourne but survives to make the cut; Adam Scott, Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee are in contention

“It wasn’t one of my best moments… I don’t remember the last time I got fresh air [shot]” McIlroy said with a grin after the round.

“I was trying to go very low to try to put the ball back into play, I caught a branch on the way and missed the ball.”

He walked from the 14th green for the tournament, meaning he was outside the cut line. A weekend full of crowds but no McIlroy? It looked like a cruel joke. But the five-time major winner quickly got to work.

He took out his driver on the 15th tee and bombed it just in front of the greenside trap. After a well-crafted chip and a solid shot, McIlroy erased his mistake moments earlier and returned level.

“It was a big chance to get down to the 15th because I felt like it was going to be a turning point one way or another,” McIlroy said.

“I made myself an easy enough birdie on 15 and played the final holes pretty well. I don’t feel like I was that far behind, I definitely didn’t play my best, but I opened it up when I needed to and I’ll come back tomorrow and try to hit a low shot and give myself a chance.”

But the drama didn’t end after the 15th.

McIlroy once again cut his driver badly on 17 and found the trees on the right-hand side. After getting lucky where the ball lay, he hit an incredible second shot that reached the front edge of the field and sent the corporate tents surrounding the field into jubilation.

McIlroy is seven shots clear of leader Rasmus Neergaard-Peters of Denmark and Portuguese star Daniel Rodrigues, who is just one shot ahead of Lee, who is nine points behind in the tournament.