Rory McIlroy has sparked concern that he is becoming more disengaged with golf after again bemoaning his poor form. The Northern Irishman finished 66th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship over the weekend, posting rounds of 74, 70, 72 and 72 to finish eight over par, above only two other players in the field.
The six-time major winner, who successfully defended his Masters title earlier this year, went into the first of three FedExCup Playoffs 12th in the standings. But his bid for a record-extending fourth season-ending title ended in disappointment.
McIlroy admits he is 'so far away'
McIlroy admitted he is 'so far away from where I need to be' heading into next week's second event of the FedExCup, the BMW Championship. He said: “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.
“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. 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.
“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 next week.”
Limited schedule and fan concerns
McIlroy has played a limited schedule since his Masters triumph back in April, with his best finishes since then being a couple of tied-seventh places at the PGA Championship and Scottish Open. Regardless of his result at Bellerive in St Louis next week, he is assured of making it to the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship.
Some fans believe the Manchester United supporter is losing his hunger for the sport. Taking to X, one fan wrote: “Rory looks like a man who has achieved all of his goals and dreams in golf. . . his sheer lack of interest in the 'season race' is understandable, for the money means nothing to him and the 'prestige' of the 'fed ex' means little to him either. Another green jacket, claret jug, Ryder Cup......perhaps a US Open, another Irish, Scottish or Australian Open might motivate him going forwards ~ but maybe he is just tired of the circus going from town to town each week.”
Another said: “Didn't play the minimum events and openly admits didn't put in preparation for it Not taking seriously.” While a third believes: “He’s disengaged.” And a fourth added: “His season was done in April, let's be honest..”
Talks with PGA Tour chief Brian Rolapp
McIlroy has also confirmed that he has held talks with PGA Tour commissioner and CEO Brian Rolapp, as he is likely to fall one event short of the 15-event minimum required for players to maintain his 'home-tour' status, which allows him to compete on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour without the need for conflicting event releases.
“[Brian Rolapp] and I have been in constant dialogue, basically since he took the job last year,” he revealed. “I think we’ve built up a really good relationship and, yeah, we’ve had a couple of conversations last week about what I can do with the Tour going forward to, I guess, fulfill the obligation to, I guess, keep my membership.
“We’ve had productive conversations, we’re figuring it out and it will all be fine. It will be a little bit of work between us. Especially with the strategic alliance with the DP World Tour I sort of pride myself on being a global player.
“I’ve got a lot of golf left this year after these events. I play six times after the Tour Championship all around the world, so I’ve tried to pace myself for that throughout the year to get to this point, but, yeah, Brian and I have had some good dialogue and we’re figuring it out.”
