While Rory McIlroy may be ranked No. 2 in the world right now, he certainly did not play like it at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, finishing ahead of just two players in the field. And he’s not shying away from how much work he has to do in order to be competitive.
McIlroy had not played since last month’s Open Championship before this weekend’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, and it showed as he finished 66th, posting a score of +8 on the tournament.
Heading into next week’s BMW Championship, the second event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, he knows he needs to be much better if he’s even going to be remotely competitive.
“Obviously didn’t come in here with a ton of reps. [It] almost felt like the more the week went on, the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit,” McIlroy said via ESPN.
“The swing wasn’t in sync and obviously I didn’t do a ton of practice coming in here. I’m so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I’ve just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit.”
McIlroy is trying to win an unprecedented fourth FedEx Cup title and his first since 2022. And even though he’s already assured a spot in the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship, he knows that he needs to execute better if he’s going to be competitive.
“I guess nice to shake the rust off a little bit, but I’m going to have to work pretty hard between now and next Thursday to feel like I have any sort of golf game to compete next week,” he said.
“To me it’s more about obviously the execution of what I’m doing right now, and the execution wasn’t there this week. I’m going to have to sort of put the head down and grind from now until Thursday to try to feel like I have any sort of chance [at Bellerive].”
We’ll have to see how McIlroy performs at the BMW Championship this weekend, but it’s clear that he has not played up to his standard.
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