A visibly emotional Rory McIlroy fought back the tears after missing the halfway cut at the Open Championship despite a stunning fightback.
McIlroy's tournament hopes looked dead and buried following Thursday's eight-over-par round of 79 at the famous and unforgiving Dunluce Links course.
But a phenomenal surge on Friday almost saw McIlroy do the unthinkable and make it through to the weekend.
The home favourite carded seven birdies and one bogey en route to a six-under-par round of 65.
It saw McIlroy finish on two-over-par at the halfway mark - one shot outside the cut.
McIlroy's score saw him equal the best round of the week so far, and he received rapturous applause from the crowds who packed the galleries around the 18th green.
Speaking to Sky Sports immediately after his round, McIlroy struggled to hold back the tears.
"Part of me is very disappointed not to be here for the weekend," he said, pausing to contain his emotions.
"Part of me disappointed, emotional. But I am happy how I played.
"The support I got out there was incredible. And you could see on that back nine, if I had got some of that momentum yesterday...
"I went with it today, and that's what I was planning to do all week. Yesterday gave me a mountain to climb, but I dug in there and showed really good resilience.
"It's going to hurt for a little bit, but I guess the good thing about golf is that I have a tournament in Memphis next week which I will have to turn my attention to.
"But this is a week I had been looking forward to for a long time. I didn't play my part this week but everyone in Northern Ireland that came out to watch me definitely played their part."
There was better fortune for Portrush favourite Graeme McDowell whose round of 70 (-1) saw him creep inside the cut line and make it through to the weekend.
Darren Clarke was also looking good for the cut, but a disastrous triple bogey at the last saw him drop from level par to +3 and miss out.
Irish golfer Shane Lowry goes into Saturday's third round with a share of the lead .
Lowry carded a four-under-par 67 to reach he halfway stage on -8 alongside American JB Holmes.
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