Rory McIlroy hit back at suggestions he was bored with golf after missing the cut in the US Open for the second year in succession. McIlroy birdied four of his last six holes at Erin Hills to improve seven shots on his opening 78 but still missed the cut by four shots. That appeared to prompt Steve Elkington, the 1995 US PGA champion, to write on Twitter: “Rory is so bored playing golf...without Tiger the threshold is prolly 4 majors with 100mill in bank.”

That was met with a swift response from McIlroy who wrote: “More like 200mil... not bad for a “bored” 28 year old... plenty more where that came from” and posted a screenshot of his Wikipedia entry, which lists some of his achievements in the game.

McIlroy won the US Open with a record 16-under-par total in 2011 and claimed his second major at the US PGA the following year. He then won the Open and US PGA in 2014, meaning he needs to win only the Masters to become the sixth player to complete a career grand slam.

A rib injury restricted McIlroy to six tournaments before the US Open but he plans to play in the upcoming Travelers Championship in Connecticut and the Irish Open, Scottish Open and Open in successive weeks in July.