Rory McIlroy misses the cut at Honda with Lydia Ko on the ’59’ watch in New Zealand

For Lydia Ko and Rory McIlroy, yesterday was a tale of two No. 1s: it was (with apologies to Charles Dickens), the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Oddly, both top-ranked golfers were annoyed, though Ko overcame hers to fire a second-round 11-under 61 in Saturday’s second round of the New Zealand Women’s Open, while McIlroy was just plain “pissed off” Friday about missing the cut at the Honda Classic.

Ko, fresh off Sunday’s victory in the Women’s Australian Open, is poised to win her second straight competition after posting her career-best, course record-breaking round that started with a bogey, ended with a birdie, and included an eagle and streaks of four straight, and five straight birdies.

“After the first, I was pretty angry,” Ko told the Associated Press after gaining a three-stroke lead over English wunderkind Charley Hull. “I got into the rough and it was pretty tough for the pin location. I left it short and that really made me angry as I did that yesterday and was not going to do it again today. The greens were much better today and rolling better and after that eagle I just got myself into the right position.”

Ko, who broke the Clearwater record of 63 that Mi Hyang Lee set last year on her way to the win, chalked up an eagle-3 on the second hole that set the stage for an absolute birdie barrage that had the Twitter-verse on alert for a 59.

After posting birdies on holes four through seven and another at No. 9, Ko made the turn at 3-under 30. Four more birdies started her back nine and she finished with four pars and a final birdie.

“I didn’t know what I was shooting but when I went past the scoreboard on 13, I thought, ‘Oh, 59, that is the magical number.’ But I’m pretty happy with 61,” Ko said.

It was a totally different story for McIlroy, who exuded confidence ahead of the tilt at PGA National that’s taking place practically a chip and a putt from his Florida residence. Pronouncing himself “that guy,“ in the absence of Tiger Woods, he entered the event after a three-week layoff following his win at the Dubai Desert Classic.

With weather halting play for some three and a half hours on Friday, McIlroy’s cut was not official until the second round finished up on Saturday. But when he started his second round with a ball out of play and a double-bogey and ended with a 4-over 74 to finish at 7-over, McIlroy knew where he stood -- four strokes south of the projected cut line.

And the Heir Apparent to a guy who made 142 straight cuts between 1998 and 2005 pulled no punches -- he was not happy.

“Yeah, I’m pissed off,” he said. “I don’t like missing cuts. You want to be playing on the weekend, and I’m not there … which is not nice.’’

McIlroy claimed his attention was focused on next week’s no-cut WGC-Cadillac Championship, but, with his last cut at the 2013 British Open, this was not the way the four-time major champ hoped to begin his tuneup for the Masters in April.

“I care about my results week‑in, week‑out, regardless whether that’s leading up to a major or not,” contended McIlroy,who never recovered from his first wayward tee shot on Friday. “I’m not really thinking of Augusta. I’m thinking of next week and just trying to play four solid rounds. The good thing about next week is we do have four rounds that we can get into some sort of rhythm.”