McIlroy in particular had a nightmare, taking 42 shots to get to the turn and eventually carding a 77, with Garcia marginally better off after his 75 put him one under for the tournament.

"We both dragged each other down," said McIlroy. "We didn't get off to the best of starts (McIlroy hit two double bogeys on the front nine) and couldn't get it together after that."

"I'm pretty drained," added Garcia. "It was a tough day. I couldn't get any momentum - until the 12th but then we both three-putted at the 13th.

"We couldn't really feed off each other's good energy because there pretty much wasn't any. Our bad holes were really bad and our good holes were bad."

McIlroy and Garcia, who hugged on the 12th green, are both likely to be in Europe's Ryder Cup team later this year and the Irishman joked the pair might have had more luck in a matchplay format.

"We probably would have been better playing foursomes," he added. "I hit the tee shot, Sergio hits the second - it was one of those days."

McIlroy did not have the worst round of the day as former Open champion Stewart Cink shot 81 and fellow American Gary Woodland an 85 before withdrawing through injury.