A THREE under par back nine saw Abingdon’s Eddie Pepperell make the cut for the latter stages of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth yesterday.

The Frilford Heath golfer’s participation appeared to be in doubt after four bogeys and a birdie saw him outside the projected cut at three over par.

However, birdies at holes 12, 14 and 16 saw him finish with a level par 72 which was enough to see him make the third round.

It left him in a share of 52nd position, ten shots behind overnight leader Francesco Molinari.

  •  Sport

Meanwhile, it was a wretched day for defending champion Rory McIlroy who bowed out after missing the cut for the third time in four years.

McIlroy was seeking his third win in four weeks, having followed his victory in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play with a third consecutive top-ten finish in the Players Championship and a seven-shot triumph at Quail Hollow on Sunday.

However, the world No 1 slumped to a second round of 78 at Wentworth to finish five over par, 15 shots behind Molinari.

A three-putt bogey on the last summed up McIlroy’s day and the only good news was a welcome weekend off before his duties as tournament host in next week’s Irish Open at Royal County Down.

“I’m not going to read too much into it,” he said.

“It was inevitable at some point that the run was going to come to a bit of an end. I’m sort of back to my usual at Wentworth.

“It wasn’t great before I won last year and it hasn’t been great after.

“Any time you’re defending a title you want to come back and give it a valiant effort.

“This week wasn’t really that. I’m not angry. A little disappointed I’m not going to be here for the weekend.

“But if there was any weekend to miss, coming off the back of three good weeks in the States.... I’m probably in need of a little bit of a rest.

“If anything good comes out of this, it’s just that I get a couple of days over the weekend to refresh mentally.”