Rory McIlroy says he has “earned the right to do whatever I want to do” after skipping media duties following his opening two rounds during what he called a “pretty average” US Open performance.

The Masters champion spoke to the media for the first time since the tournament started after Saturday’s four-over 74 pushed him back to 10 over par after three rounds.

McIlroy said he hoped Sunday’s final round will be a case of taking “four and a half hours and out of here” to put a disappointing week behind him.

The 36-year-old has cut a frustrated figure throughout the tournament at Oakmont, only just making the cut on Friday.

And, after Saturday’s round, he said making himself less available to some sections of the media is partly due to a story leaked surrounding his driver before last month’s PGA Championship.

It emerged the USGA asked McIlroy to change the club just two days before the event after an equipment inspection deemed it ‘non-conforming’.

“It’s just frustration with you guys [some sections of the media],” the Northern Irishman said.

It was the first time he has spoken to the media post-round at a major since winning the Masters at Augusta in April.

“I have been totally available for the past number of years,” McIlroy added. “That [driver issue] was a part of it but at Augusta I skipped you guys on Thursday. It’s not out of the ordinary as I’ve done it before, but I am doing it a little more often. I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do.”

The Oakmont course has proved to be a challenge for the entire field and, although McIlroy has been happy with some aspects of his game, retaining focus has been an issue at times.

“The name of the game this week is staying patient and I’ve tried to do a good job of it out there, but it’s just one of those golf courses where you can lose patience pretty quickly,” he said.

“I have driven the ball as good as I have for a long time, so that’s a positive from this week. I was hoping to play better, but didn’t.”

‘A course where the tiniest mistakes get penalised a lot’

McIlroy said he has felt “a little bit flat on the golf course” since his Masters triumph in April, which saw him become the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam of winning all four majors.

Naturally, he is keen to achieve further success, but knew from his slow start to Friday’s second round that any chance of collecting a second major of the year this week was gone.

With the shackles off a little, he produced a good finish to squeeze into the weekend action, but was unable to carry that into Saturday as he finished four over for the day.

McIlroy acknowledged anything short of a top performance would be punished on the course.

“It’s much easier when you’re on the cut line when you don’t really care if you’re here for the weekend or not,” he added of Friday’s effort.

“I was thinking, ‘do I want another two days here or not?’, but it makes it easier to play when you’re in that mindset.

“I’ve certainly experienced times when I haven’t played the way I wanted to. I actually feel like I’ve played OK this week, but it’s just the sort of golf course where the tiniest mistakes get penalised a lot and that’s how it’s felt.

“You’ve got to be on every single shot and if you miss a fairway, you’re going to be scrambling for par. If you miss your landing spot by a couple of yards, these greens repel the ball into rough and it just makes things very tricky, so you’ve got to be on your game.”