{"id":1168046,"date":"2026-08-25T06:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168046\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T06:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:26:14","slug":"rory-mcilroy-not-super-happy-with-game-ahead-of-lucrative-tour-championship-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168046\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy \u2018not super happy\u2019 with game ahead of lucrative Tour Championship \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

To borrow his friend Shane Lowry\u2019s mantra, it is a case of \u201conwards and upwards\u201d for Rory McIlroy<\/a> in his quest to claim a fourth career win at the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, the final event of the FedEx Cup<\/a> playoffs.<\/p>\n

While the pot of gold that is the FedEx Cup bonus money was distributed following the BMW Championship at Bellerive \u2013 with world number one Scottie Scheffler scooping $23 million of the more than $100 million at play \u2013 the Tour Championship itself has a standalone purse of $40 million with $10 million for the winner of the 30-man tournament.<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s improved performance in St Louis, finishing solo third after contending throughout the final round only for US Open champion Wyndham Clark to finish birdie-birdie-birdie for an impressive win, augurs well for his chances headed to Atlanta where the Northern Irishman has won three times (2016, 2019 and 2022).<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall encouraged with how I played this week compared to what it was last week [in Memphis], and certainly something to build ongoing into East Lake,\u201d said McIlroy, who was tied with Clark through 15 holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always felt like I needed to just get my nose ahead to really try to put the pressure on Wyndham, and I couldn\u2019t. We were tied there for a few holes, and then when he made that putt on 16 for 2 and I couldn\u2019t answer, that was obviously a huge moment in the round and in the tournament,\u201d added McIlroy.<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s PGA Tour season will finish with the Tour Championship before he diverts back across to Europe, where he is playing in the Amgen Irish Open at Doonbeg and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. He is still not entirely happy with his swing fundamentals.<\/p>\n

As he put it, \u201cI\u2019m not in a spot where I\u2019m super happy with where my game is or where my swing is. So, I just have to keep working on it. But it\u2019s nice to know even when I\u2019m not super happy with everything I can still piece it together and get it around and still give myself a chance to win tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom McKibbin the sole Irish player in the British Masters<\/b>\"TomTom McKibbin, Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm and Caleb Surratt of Legion XIII pose with the LIV Golf Team Championship trophy. Photograph: Justin Casterline\/Getty <\/p>\n

Tom McKibbin<\/a> isn\u2019t wasting any time in recalibrating from his LIV season \u2013 where he was part of the Legion XIII, alongside Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Sturratt, which went back-to-back in the team competition with their season\u2019s work finishing up in Indianapolis \u2013 to return to playing on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n

McKibbin is the lone Irish player in the field for this week\u2019s British Masters at The Belfry, while he has the Amgen Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship pencilled in for the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Of his contribution to Legion\u2019s successful team defence, McKibbin tipped his cap to his team-mates: \u201cIt\u2019s been great the last couple years getting to spend time with these guys. To get to play golf pretty much every time I play golf with the best players in the world has been pretty cool, and to win the team championship two years in a row is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the rest of the year, he\u2019ll be doing it for himself.<\/p>\n

By the Numbers: 16<\/b><\/p>\n

Indicative of the growing strength of women\u2019s golf in Ireland, there will be 16 home players in the field for the KPMG Women\u2019s Irish Open at The K Club (South Course) which starts on Thursday, led by Solheim Cup-bound Leona Maguire.<\/p>\n

\"LeonaLeona Maguire will tune up for the Solheim Cup at the Women’s Irish Open. Photograph: Luke Hales\/Getty Word of Mouth<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be real with it; not everything was perfect. But for the most part we\u2019ve done a solid job. If there\u2019s one thing that I could say, it\u2019s we did something different in the game of golf, and I\u2019m proud of that\u201d \u2013 Jon Rahm<\/b> on LIV Golf, after the troubled LIV season finished up on Sunday in Indianapolis. What version LIV 2.0 brings remains very much up in the air, following the Saudi Arabia PIF\u2019s withdrawal of financial support.<\/p>\n

On this day … <\/b>Augu<\/b>st 25th, 1996<\/b><\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson enjoyed a standout season on the PGA Tour, with more wins than anyone, even if Tom Lehman would claim Player of the Year honours.<\/p>\n

His success in the NEC World Series was Lefty\u2019s fourth victory of the year and provided some solace for his spectacular collapse at the PGA Championship two weeks earlier, where he blew a three-shot halfway lead to finish tied-eighth.<\/p>\n

Phil the Thrill didn\u2019t make life entirely easy for himself at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, but had learned sufficiently from his setback at Valhalla to close the door on his pursuers: Mickelson produced rounds of 70-66-68-70 for a total of 274, three clear of Billy Mayfair, Steve Stricker and Duffy Waldorf in the limited-field event.<\/p>\n

Two late birdies on 16 and 17 in the final round enabled Mickelson to claim his fourth tournament of the season \u2013 adding to his success in the Nortel Open, the Phoenix Open and the Byron Nelson \u2013 and brought some relief, as well as a payday for $378,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for a player\u2019s confidence to close the deal,\u201d admitted Mickelson of what was his ninth of 45 career wins on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

Social Swing<\/b><\/p>\n

Pretty frustrating as a female golfer to hear \u201cwe love supporting women\u2019s golf\/we want to grow the game\u201d, yet every week there\u2019s an example of the exact opposite. First it\u2019s big brands investing in oversexualised influencers, now pushing over a woman is deemed good content \u2013 LET player Hannah Screen<\/b> elegantly hits out at the Good Good Golf posting of the new Callaway driver. The social media post \u2013 with a man pushing a woman to the ground \u2013 was deleted after widespread criticism.<\/p>\n

Fooch out on the course today, telling me North London\u2019s that way and 3 pts for the @Arsenal \u2013 Justin Rose<\/b> on the interaction with his caddie Mark \u201cFooch\u201d Fulcher at the BMW in St Louis wasn\u2019t all about the golf.<\/p>\n

Know the Rules<\/b><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> After searching for two minutes a player finds what they believe to be another player\u2019s ball, so they continue to search for their ball. After the three-minute search time ends, it is then discovered that the ball the player found and believed to be another player\u2019s ball was in fact the player\u2019s ball. What is the ruling?<\/p>\n

A:<\/b> The player\u2019s ball is lost because the three-minute search time has passed and they did not identify their ball in a reasonable time (Rule 18.2a).<\/p>\n

In the Bag<\/b><\/p>\n

Miyu Yamashita \u2013 CPKC Canadian Women\u2019s Open<\/b><\/p>\n

Driver<\/b> \u2013 Srixon ZXi (9 degrees)<\/p>\n

3-wood<\/b> \u2013 Srixon ZX MkII (15 degrees)<\/p>\n

5-wood<\/b> \u2013 Srixon ZX MkII (18 degrees)<\/p>\n

Hybrids<\/b> \u2013 Srixon ZX MkII (22 and 25 degrees)<\/p>\n

Irons<\/b> \u2013 Srixon ZXi5 (6), Srixon ZXi7 (7-PW)<\/p>\n

Wedges<\/b> \u2013 Cleveland RTZ (48 degrees), Cleveland RTZ Tour Rack (52 and 58 degrees)<\/p>\n

Putter<\/b> \u2013 TaylorMade Spider Tour X<\/p>\n

Ball<\/b> \u2013 Srixon Z-Star XV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To borrow his friend Shane Lowry\u2019s mantra, it is a case of \u201conwards and upwards\u201d for Rory McIlroy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,4298,4287,79,176064,16,15],"class_list":["post-1168046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports","tag-tom-mckibbin","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117154730401144035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}