London, July 23 : Golfer Rory McIlroy has said he needs to be patient after enduring yet another disappointing campaign at The Open Championship, as he believes he still has a lot of time left career wise.

Last year, the Ulsterman had the excuse of hullabaloo engulfing him after his U. S. Open win and his loss at the British Open. But after an impressive start to his campaign this time around, he simply faltered.

McIlroy dropped four shots over the opening four holes on Sunday, including a double-bogey on three, led to a 73 as he finished the tournament eight over par.

McIlroy's poor performance at the Royal Lytham followed an awful 10-over two-round total at the US Open at the Olympic Club five weeks ago, but the former world number one is not much bothered.

"The one thing for me is to stay patient. If it doesn't happen over the next couple of weeks, it's no big deal. It's a 20-year career, so I'm not going to get too wound up just over a few weeks," The Daily Express quoted McIlroy, as saying.

"I've got to keep plugging away, working on the right things and eventually it will come around. Everyone goes through little struggles. What I'm experiencing at the minute is frustrating at times, but not anything I can't deal with," he added.

"I'm obviously very disappointed because I felt like I was coming here playing pretty well. I had a nice first round," he said.

McIlroy further said: "Maybe a Major championship on the toughest of courses exposes a few weaknesses that you have there. When you see heavy rough on the left and bunkers on the right, you start thinking about that a little, if you're not 100 per cent confident about what you're doing." (ANI)