Despite a deftly-controlled 69 to seize a share of the European Masters halfway lead, he assumed the attitude of one who hoped, nay expected, to have left all rivals floundering in his wake by this stage.

Fresh from letting slip a five-footer on the 18th in this Alpine Eden, and with it the chance of a one-shot lead, McIlroy did not conceal his displeasure. “If I had made a few more putts I could have distanced myself from the field,” he said.