McIlroy fears missing Players cut | Thomas: One of my best rounds

Rory McIlroy is sweating over the prospect of missing the cut at The Players Championship for the second year running.

After completing the final three holes of his opening round, carding 73, the 32-year-old Northern Irishman shot another 73 in his second in challenging conditions at TPC Sawgrass to end the day two-over-par.

That leaves McIlroy outside the projected cut and while further wind and rain could help his chances of sneaking through, the former world No 1 admits he faces a nervous wait.

"I don't know. I might be one short," he said. "We'll see what happens tomorrow. Obviously, the double (bogey) on seven was very untimely.

"I thought if I birdied the last and got to one-over, that should be good enough. I did everything I should have done on nine. I hit four good shots, but the putt just sort of didn't want to go in.

"Hopefully I've done enough. I mean, it just depends on the conditions tomorrow for the other guys.

"It was very tough. The front nine was a little more sheltered so it probably didn't play quite as tough. But some of those holes on the back nine are so exposed, like 16, 17, 18, it's brutal out there. Hitting those tee shots on 17 and 18 and just keeping them dry and walking forward is nice."

Given the severity of the conditions, questions have been raised about how fair it is that one side of the draw has had it so much worse than the other, but McIlroy was diplomatic on the issue.

"You get your good ones, and you get your bad ones," he told reporters. "You have to believe that they all even out over the course of a year or a career, I guess.

"I've certainly been on the good side of a draw many times, and I've been on the bad side a lot too. But at the end of the day, I feel like it all just