Rory McIlroy shares his goal for the BMW Championship after recent struggles

By Jim van Wijk, Press Association

Rory McIlroy admits just seeing an improvement in his performance at the BMW Championship in St Louis would feel like a win.

The world number two laboured to an eight-over finish at last week’s St Jude Championship, finishing third bottom of the leaderboard as Scottie Scheffler coasted to victory.

It continued a run of frustrating performances from the back-to-back Masters champion, who had returned to action in Memphis for the first time since he tied for 40th at The Open.

McIlroy – who will be playing alongside Xander Schauffele as part of the early afternoon wave at Bellerive Country Club – hopes to make the most of another opportunity to gauge just where he needs to refocus his game.

“I think if you come into events and all you are thinking about is winning, then there is a lot more to golf than that, right? It is not as binary as you win or you lose,” McIlroy said at a pre-tournament press conference on Thursday.

“I have had fifth place finishes that have felt like wins to me because I haven’t played very well during the week, but I have got as much out of my game as I can.

“If somehow I am able to put myself in a position to win this week, that would be amazing, but I think just seeing some progress this week from where I was last week would be a ‘win’ for me.

“It is a process, a journey. Obviously you try to build up to those moments where you do put yourself in position to win, but I have played 280-290 PGA Tour events, I won 30 of them, so there is a lot of times where you walk away where you don’t win and you have to take the positives from those as well.”

Regardless of his result at Bellerive, McIlroy, sitting 13th in the play-off standings, is still assured of making to the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship, where he could yet win an unprecedented fourth FedExCup and his first since 2022.

McIlroy is also set to play at the Irish Open in Doonbeg next month and then the BMW Championship closer to home at Wentworth as the DP World Tour also moves towards a conclusion.

“I am playing five of the next six weeks, so over the course of a calendar year, I still play more than most of the top guys because I play on both tours,” the Northern Irishman said.

“It is just trying to find that balance, and then trying to be home enough – it is (daughter) Poppy’s first day of school today.

“I would have loved to have been home for that, but I am here, so it is just stuff like that, things I didn’t have 10 years ago that I have these days. I am in a different spot in my life.”