Rory McIlroy has called a time out on his golfing career to rest an aching back and rekindle his enthusiasm for the game.
The 20-year-old Ulsterman was despondent after a second round of five-over 77 at the Masters saw him packing his bags for home ahead of the weekend.
It was just the latest setback in the last few weeks for the youngster who dramatically burst onto the scene as a precocious amateur at the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie.
And now he feels that it is time to take some time off to put things right.
"I don?t know what is going on -- I just need to take a bit of a break and come back with a refreshed attitude," he said.
"I am getting frustrated very easily and getting down on myself and I just think that I need to go home and get my head sorted.
"I am supposed to play Quail Hollow in a couple of weeks but I might need a bit more time to let this injury clear up and clear my head and maybe come back at Wentworth or something. We will see what happens.
"I just need to go home for a while and see what I need to do for the rest of the season to get better."
McIlroy said he first felt a deterioration in the back pain at the Dubai Desert Classic in early February where he failed to defend the title he won last year -- the first win of his pro career.
Since then, he has struggled for form and that has taken away some of the freshness and enthusiasm that are the trademarks of his game.
"I have felt this down before, probably the summer of 2008, but all it takes is one good week and you can be back up there," he said.
"Sometimes I just think I need to get back to the way I was when I was a kid, just going out there and whacking it, finding it and whacking it again.
"Sometimes your head can get a bit muddled up with a lot things. I just have to enjoy it again."
All in all it was a miserable day for the Irish as one of the pre-tournament favourites Padraig Harrington also crashed out adding a 75 to his opening 74 for a five over total of 149.
It was a body blow for the three-time major winner who had expressed the conviction that he was getting back to his best after spending last year making alterations to his swing pattern.
"I didn?t play very well yesterday and did well to shoot the score I did and it was kind of the opposite today - I played well and didn?t score," the 38-year-old Dubliner said.
"It was tough today, the pins were very tough and I got on to the back foot and tried to go after them.
"I never had the luxury of making mistakes today and a couple of holes got away from me.
"I wouldn?t say that I was surprised by the way things went for me this week
"I played a bit like that last week and lost a bit of confidence in my game and then when that happened again at the start of this week it set me back and the confidence just wasn?t there."
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
