Rory McIlroy finishes mediocre week with cloud hanging over him as he keeps his silence after strange driver error before failed PGA Championship bid

• McIlroy only just made the halfway cut on the mark of one over par 
• The green jacket holder was well off the pace at the PGA Championship
• A sixth major will have to wait until the US Open in a few weeks' time

That would go as much for his performance, his equipment and his appetite for explaining all of the above.

When he was done, having signed off from the PGA Championship with another underwhelming round, he simply completed his paperwork and headed directly for the carpark.

A quick word to discuss the strange business with his driver and the ruling that kept it out of his bag? For a fourth straight day, the answer to media was no. And he was gone.

It is a measure of how this second major had played out that he was packing up just as Jon Rahm was heading for the first tee. 

At three over par, finalised with a 72, last month’s winner of a green jacket was a green mile away from Rahm and those others contending for the Wanamaker Trophy.

Rory McIlroy only just made the halfway cut on the mark of one over par at Quail Hollow

At three over par, finalised with a 72, last month’s winner of a green jacket was well off the pace

If the predictions were of an uninhibited charge by McIlroy towards a sixth major here in North Carolina, then how misguided they proved to be. 

That mission will have to wait another few weeks until the US Open, and so will answers around the non-compliance of his driver.

Quite why he has felt unwilling to explain that peculiar scenario is known only to him. At the very least, he has prolonged a relatively trivial talking point and given licence for those on the outside to perceive deeper meanings.

On the surface, the situation was fairly routine - his driver was selected for random testing on Tuesday and failed a conformity test, presumably meaning the clubhead had become too springy and needed to be replaced. 

That would be irritating but not uncommon in a game of wear and tear, and the PGA of America have already gone to lengths to stress there was no suggestion of ‘intent’.

The sharper oddity here is why McIlroy put himself in such a position, or rather why there was no internal testing by his team to ascertain when his favoured weapon was getting too close to the line and could be swapped out in a non-major week. 

Along with snubbing the media and a number of his bogeys, it felt like an unforced error.

It comes after his driver was deemed to be non-conforming ahead of the tournament

Ostensibly, the upshot of the equipment kerfuffle was a fairly woeful performance off the tee and an anti-climax in following up his tremendous win at Augusta.

Remember, Quail Hollow had been billed by Jordan Spieth as Rory McIlroy Country Club after four previous wins here, so expectations beyond the usual McIlroy hype were fair.

That he survived the cut by a single stroke and then flopped in silence over the weekend was not on anyone’s betting sheet. 

No shame in having an off-week, especially when processing a career-defining win was doubtless quite exhausting.

But it was a surprise nonetheless to see him labouring around this of all layouts.

His fourth round aped the previous three – messy, disjointed, a snake or two for every ladder. 

The driver, so culpable earlier in the tournament for this position of irrelevance, actually behaved quite well. Naturally, that meant the putter switched itself off.

At the first he missed a six-footer for par and two holes later he did dropped another. By that stage he had already been in and out of two bunkers and Scottie Scheffler, the 54-hole leader, was hours from leaving his rental home.

Quail Hollow had previously been labelled by Jordan Spieth as 'Rory McIlroy Country Club'

That he survived the cut by a single stroke and end up nowhere near contending for the title was an unexpected shock

At four over, McIlroy’s first stirrings of progress came with a 90-yard approach to five feet for birdie on the fifth and the early losses were cancelled out with a chip-and-putt three on the short hole at eight. Better, but still a slog.

The inward nine was equally frustrating, demonstrated by his failure to make any of those mid-range putts between 10 and 15 feet. It was a good length for him at Augusta. Here? Not so much.

Having failed to make any progress on the way in, McIlroy attempted to drive the 14th, which at 330 yards is both tempting and dangerous with water lining the left. 

Where Scheffler managed eagle on Saturday, McIlroy got wet on Sunday. Chipping to six feet, he missed the par putt and was three over, one worse than he started.

When McIlroy birdied the 15th, the easiest hole on the card this week and a par five he has played in three under this week, it was immediately followed by a drive that ballooned so far right his ball almost entered a hospitality stand.

From the ridiculous came an exquisite recovery for par, only to flirt with the lake on the par three 17th. Another bogey was scribbled down, before a par to close.

While there is no shame in having an off-week at the top level, McIlroy will be disappointed by his showing nonetheless

With that, he signed a card he would rather bin and left without a word, as he has done every day since the tournament began. Even with the divorce furore swirling at the PGA Championship last year, he chose to front up. A peculiar scenario indeed.

As for those with sharper prospects on the course, Scheffler, commencing on 11 under par and a three-shot lead over Alex Noren, opened his final loop with a bogey on the first. If that seemed sporting of the world No 1, the favour was not grasped – Noren bogeyed it, too.

Rahm was lurking at six under par, having parred the first two holes, and DeChambeau was a shot further back through four. No bogeys, no birdies. 

A little like McIlroy, the bombastic American was not conforming to type and appeared to be leaving his charge a little late.