Weary Rory McIlroy heads to Denver for BMW Championship, sideline pass to Broncos-Colts

NORTON, Mass. -- Rory McIlroy’s Labor Day weekend ended at the Deutsche Bank Championship the way it began — with a lackluster 1-under 70 that had the world No. 1 trying out for the role of head majorette.

It was an offending iron that McIlroy spun over his head like a baton on Friday; Monday, on his way to a disappointing T5 finish after a spellbinding 64 on Sunday that had him poised for his second DBC win, his putter earned the Boy Wonder’s disapprobation and the whirligig treatment.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the day that I wanted today,” said McIlroy, who was going for his fourth victory in five starts but could get nothing going with the flat stick in the finale. “But it’s been a decent week, a top five .... It hasn’t been all bad. But obviously a little disappointed with the way I putted.”

With only the well-connected enjoying a Tiger Woods sighting last week, the proceedings lacked the buzz that only the participation of the 14-time major winner lends to any PGA Tour event. But with the injured tourney host off the circuit until at least December, and 2007 DBC winner Phil Mickelson out of contention, all eyes turned to the 2012 tourney victor to amp up the crowd.

Alas, it was not to be, as McIlroy, playing with eventual winner Chris Kirk one group behind 54-hole leader Russell Henley, began the day two strokes back and fighting with his putter from the start when he failed to convert a 15-footer for birdie on No. 1.

A birdie on the par-4 fourth was just a tease, as McIlroy followed up with bogeys on Nos. 5 and 6 as he did on Friday, with Brendan Porath providing the gory details of his backwards bunker shot on the sixth and his tryout for a spot in the Red Sox depleted rotation.

A short miss on the 10th resulted in a bogey and a return appearance of Friday’s shoulder-slumping demeanor —a familiar routine during McIlroy’s lost 2013 season — while a three-putt bogey on No. 12 pretty much summed up his day.

All in all, while McIlroy tweeted that he enjoyed his stay at TPC Boston, it was a frustrated and weary four-time major champion who finished four shots behind Kirk before winging his way to the BMW Championship and a date with Peyton Manning in Denver.

“I think today was just a combination of trying too hard, and then I feel like whenever I have played a lot of golf my attitude can get sort of — I was very sort of reactive about bad shots and bad breaks today, which I haven’t been the last two weeks,” said McIlroy. “So I think that’s a little bit of mental fatigue kicking in there.”

While there’s the business of winning the BMW Championship to contend with first, McIlroy was definitely looking forward to joining Mickelson and Bubba Watson for Sunday night’s Broncos-Colts game at Mile High Stadium. The two teams will kick off their NFL season with the three tour stars stalking the sidelines as guests of the home team, according to Bernie McGuire.

Maybe it was the prospect of Sunday Night Football, which he said after The Barclays was one reason he decided to tee it up in Denver, or perhaps it was just the weariness of winning the last two majors and a hectic playoff schedule catching up with him. Either way, McIlroy’s mood definitely lightened once he entered the friendly skies and playfully scared the daylights out of his sleeping caddie JP Fitzgerald.