Rory McIlroy was seen limping at the Truist Championship, just days before the PGA Championship begins. The reigning Masters champion finished tied for 19th place at the signature event, raising concerns about his fitness ahead of the second major of the season.
McIlroy's Injury Update
The 37-year-old recorded the ninth-worst statistical round of his career on Saturday, carding a 75. However, he bounced back with a four-under-par 67 on Sunday. Despite the limp, McIlroy downplayed the injury, revealing it was a blister on his right pinky toe.
"Yeah, I've got a blister on my pinky toe on my right foot," McIlroy said. "But it's underneath my nail. So I can't really get to it or so it's a little sore, but I'll be all right."
McIlroy explained that the issue began on Friday afternoon but refused to blame it for his performance. "No, not at all. No, that was - I wish that was an excuse, but absolutely not (laughing)," he replied. "No, it's fine. I'll be okay."
Preparations for PGA Championship
The two-time PGA Championship winner admitted he has areas to improve before the tournament at Aronimink. "I think the range session last night was good. Figured out a couple of things," he explained. "As I said, I feel like I got into a couple of bad habits just because of that left-to-right wind on the range all week. So straighten that out."
McIlroy added: "I'm going to go home tonight, which will be nice, spend a night in my own bed and practice at home tomorrow. Try to get a, you know, just sort of continue that feel and bring that up to Philadelphia for the rest of the week."
McIlroy also visited Aronimink earlier this year for a practice round. "I went up and back in the same day," he said. "It was good to get - we played the BMW there in 2018, but the course played a lot differently. It was wet in 2018 and the greens didn't play as fast or as severe as what I felt like they played last week when I played. So it's not a long golf course, but the big defence is the greens and they can tuck the pins away if they want to."
He noted that the early look will allow him to keep practice rounds short during the tournament week. "It just means that the week of the tournament you're not under pressure to play a lot of holes and historically the practice rounds at the PGA can be excruciatingly long, so it's probably going to just be nine holes Tuesday, nine holes Wednesday."
