No. 1 ranked golfer Rory McIlroy missed the cut on Friday at the Hong Kong Open, ending his chance to repeat as champion at the tournament.
Michael Campbell leads the Open with a one-stroke lead at 9-under par, followed by Fredrik Andersson Hed, Lian-Wei Zhang and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who are all tied at 8-under and one stroke behind Campbell on the leaderboard.
"It now makes winning the Hong Kong Open a lot easier, definitely," Campbell said to the Associated Press. "But then Rory's world No. 1 for a reason as he's a wonderful talent and I've admired him ever since he turned pro."
On Friday Campbell shot a 6-under 64 after putting in a 10-foot birdie on the 18th hole. McIlroy missed the cut after shooting a two-over-par 72 round, leaving him, good for a 5-over par and 14 shots behind Campbell.
"I had a great start getting it to four under and in a position from which I might have even won the tournament but then it all went on the slide," McIlroy said to the Chicago Tribune.
The last time Campbell won a tournament was seven years ago at the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth in 2005. Earlier that same year he held off Tiger Woods to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.
"You can't buy confidence, you just have to earn it, and I think I've earned it over the last seven years since I haven't won a golf tournament," Campbell said.
McIlroy shot a three-over-par 73 on Thursday and started off well on Friday before bogeying the fifth hole. He won the Hong Kong Open last season with a 12-under par 268.
"The wheels came off at that par five, it was a huge momentum breaker," said McIlroy,
McIlroy hadn't missed a cut since June at the U.S. Open. His girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki was in attendance on Friday and cheered on McIlroy throughout the second round.
"It's disappointing as you never want to miss the cut and even more when you are defending a tournament. Now I am going to work on few things with my putter before playing in Dubai next week," he said to the Tribune.
Earlier this week on Tuesday McIlroy took home two of the most important year-end awards, winning the PGA of America's Player of the Year award and the Vardon Trophy.
According to Golf.com, "The PGA Player of the Year is awarded on a points system, while the Vardon Trophy is given to the player with the lowest adjusted scoring average, based on a minimum of 60 rounds, with no incomplete rounds, in events co-sponsored or designated by the PGA Tour."
McIlroy has been the most dominant golfer on tour this season, finishing in the Top 10 in ten different tournaments and also winning the PGA Championship by a record eight strokes.
He has played in 16 tournaments this season and is averaging 313.4 yards per and has been hitting 41 percent of his fairways. McIlroy has earned over $8 million this season, including wins at the Honda Classic and the Deutsche Bank Championship in the FedEx Cup.
This season McIlroy has became the first European to win four PGA Tour events and is the only person besides Tiger Woods to do that since 2005.
Woods finished the season behind McIlroy in scoring average with a 68.90, but was ineligible for the PGA of America Player of the Year award due to an incomplete round in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March.
The PGA of America announced the award on Tuesday with this statement:
"McIlroy, 23, became the fourth youngest PGA Champion on Aug. 12 with a record eight-stroke triumph at The Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, S.C. He went on to capture both the season money earnings and adjusted scoring average titles. He finished with 100 points, while Tiger Woods - a three-time winner this season - finished runner-up with 66 points. Woods is the all-time leader in both season-ending awards, having captured 10 PGA Player of the Year awards and eight Vardon Trophies since 1997."