Rory McIlroy’s frustration with his faltering form was evident in the PGA Tour play-offs on Friday when he threw his 3-wood into a pond and was forced to wade through weeds to fish it out.

The world number three, who finished second-to-last in Sunday’s first FedEx Cup shootout, in which next week’s winner will win $25 million (£22.3 million), was playing his penultimate hole at the BMW Championship when his mood turned sour.

When his tee shot on the 17th hole landed in the rough, he threw his wood toward the water. But if he wanted it to disappear for good, it was his second misjudgment in a matter of seconds—it just missed making a wet mess.

It certainly wasn’t as much of a feat as his infamous club throw at Doral 10 years ago, when his 3-iron landed so far out in the lake that Donald Trump, the course’s owner and then future U.S. president, needed a diver wearing breathing apparatus to extract the iron.

McIlroy hit a par on the hole at Denver’s Castle Pines club for a 71 (one par). However, with a score of three under par, he was 10 strokes behind leader Adam Scott.

Since finishing runner-up at the US Open in June – the Northern Irishman looked all but certain to win his first major in 10 years until he bogeyed three of the last four holes to effectively hand the title to Bryson DeChambeau – McIlroy has struggled.

He did finish fifth at the Olympics, but that came with a missed cut at the Open at Royal Troon and a tie for 68th in the 70-man field last week in Memphis.

McIlroy still has a chance to collect his fourth FedEx award next week in Atlanta and believes it can turn a “pretty good year into a really good year.” But his reaction in Colorado alone underscores that the improvements need to be significant.

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