Rory McIlroy missed his third straight cut with a miserable seven-over second round at Muirfield Village as Tiger Woods eased into contention at the Memorial Tournament.
On Thursday, McIlroy recovered from a nightmare quadruple-bogey seven on the ninth hole to finish the day in a share of 20th on one under.
But on Friday there was no halt to his steady decline, as he bogeyed twice on the front nine before doubles at the 11th and 14th, together with a further dropped shot at 13, confirmed his early exit.
McIlroy said: "I hit some good shots, it just seems like every time I go out there I make one or two big numbers and that sort of throws me.
"Just those big numbers at the beginning are killing me, and I just need to get those off the card and I'll be OK."
The round, which did not include a single birdie, came after McIlroy missed cuts at the Players Championship and the BMW PGA Championship.
Looking ahead to the US Open, he added: "I hit some good shots out there. I'm definitely hitting the ball better than I did last week, so I can see an improvement there.
"But I've still got a long way to go."
For Woods it was a different story as his three-under 69 saw him finish the day five under overall, one stroke behind second-round leader Rory Sabbatini, of South Africa.
Woods hit five birdies in his round, and it could have been even better but for a double bogey on the par-three 12th.
Woods predicted the field would stay bunched up, telling the PGA's official website: "The guys aren't going to go out there and shoot a bunch of low rounds out here.
"This golf course is hard. The pin locations for tomorrow are going to be difficult. So it's going to be another good test."
Sabbatini was also three under, carding five birdies against two bogies to sit a shot clear of American trio Woods, Spencer Levin and Scott Stallings.
The South African said: "It feels good. Obviously it's been a trying year, and obviously it's great to see some return on the effort I've been putting in.
"So that feels fantastic."
Overnight leader Stallings could not repeat his fireworks of Thursday as his four birdies were more than cancelled out by five bogeys for a one-over 73, while Levein was level for his round.
Two more Americans, Daniel Summerhays and Jim Furyk, shared fifth on four under, while Sweden's Henrik Stenson led the European challenge on two under.
England's Greg Owen was one under, one shot ahead of compatriot and world number one Luke Donald.
Collated second round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour's Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance, Muirfield Village GC, Dublin, Ohio, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 72):
138 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 69 69
139 Spencer Levin 67 72, Tiger Woods 70 69, Scott Stallings 66 73
140 Jim Furyk 72 68, Daniel Summerhays 69 71
141 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 72, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 70, Kyle Reifers 71 70, Jonathan Byrd 71 70, Troy Matteson 72 69
142 Erik Compton 67 75, Adam Scott (Aus) 70 72, Lucas Glover 74 68, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 71 71, Dustin Johnson 71 71, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 72 70, Andres Romero (Arg) 69 73, David Mathis 71 71, Bo Van Pelt 73 69, Rickie Fowler 71 71, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 74 68
143 Steve Stricker 73 70, Greg Owen (Eng) 72 71, Brandt Snedeker 69 74, Ryan Moore 70 73
144 Brendon De Jonge 73 71, Ricky Barnes 72 72, Jeff Overton 72 72, Matthew Every 69 75, Luke Donald (Eng) 71 73, Stewart Cink 71 73, Johnson Wagner 72 72
145 Chris Kirk 75 70, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 72 73, David Hearn (Can) 70 75, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 71 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 73 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 75, Jimmy Walker 72 73, Brian Davis (Eng) 73 72, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 72, Chris Di Marco 73 72, Scott Piercy 70 75, Hunter Mahan 72 73, Kevin Stadler 72 73, K J Choi (Kor) 74 71, John Huh (Kor) 71 74
146 Bud Cauley 70 76, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 72 74, Davis Love III 74 72, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 74, Branden Grace (Rsa) 74 72, Mark Wilson 70 76, Blake Adams 69 77, Harris English 71 75, Charlie Wi (Kor) 71 75, Cameron Tringale 72 74
147 Pat Perez 74 73, Robert Garrigus 71 76, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 74 73, Fred Couples 74 73, Brendan Steele 72 75, J.B. Holmes 72 75, Ben Crane 72 75, Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 74, Marc Leishman (Aus) 72 75, Brandt Jobe 73 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 75 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 73 74, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 74 73
Missed the cut:
148 Nick Watney 73 75, George McNeill 72 76, Bill Haas 73 75, Kevin Chappell 74 74
149 Martin Flores 74 75, Kyle Stanley 75 74, John Senden (Aus) 77 72, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 75 74, Bryden Macpherson (Aus) 79 70, Bubba Watson 75 74, Will Claxton 74 75, Ben Curtis 70 79, James Driscoll 73 76, Kevin Streelman 73 76, Steve Marino 74 75
150 Keegan Bradley 76 74, Rory McIlroy (Nirl) 71 79, Kelly Kraft 73 77, Jason Day (Aus) 74 76, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 77 73
151 Kevin Na 76 75, D.A. Points 76 75, Charley Hoffman 75 76, Ken Duke 75 76, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 76 75, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 74 77
152 Kris Blanks 76 76, Chris Stroud 74 78, Billy Mayfair 74 78, Chris Couch 75 77
153 Jerry Kelly 75 78, Michael Thompson 74 79, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 77 76, J.J Killeen 76 77, Webb Simpson 78 75
154 Colt Knost 78 76
155 Billy Hurley III 84 71, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 75 80
156 Gary Woodland 77 79, Tommy Gainey 79 77
157 Bo Hoag 80 77
158 Bryce Molder 75 83
159 Brian Harman 77 82
164 Mike Weir (Can) 83 81
WD: 79 Sang-moon Bae (Kor), 79 Phil Mickelson (USA), 81 Tom Gillis (USA), 82 Boo Weekley (USA)
