Rory McIlroy Finds Better Form Over Weekend at Tour Championship, Eyes Ryder Cup Next

The three-time FedEx Cup winner fought a back injury earlier in the week and rallied to finish fourth. He's scheduled to play two more events before Marco Simone.

ATLANTA — Rory McIlroy was unable to defend his FedEx Cup title, but he left East Lake Golf Club on Sunday feeling pretty good about things nonetheless following the conclusion of the Tour Championship.

A back injury to start the week that put his status in doubt left him playing at less than his best, but he found some form over the weekend and managed to finish fourth in the overall standings—although 13 shots behind winner Viktor Hovland—that use a strokes-adjusted starting point.

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"Hung in there the first couple days when I really wasn't feeling great," said McIlroy, ranked second in the world, who shot a final-round 65 and earned $4 million in FedEx Cup bonus pay. “Then quite a bit of improvement yesterday. Then felt I could actually tee the driver up a bit today and hit a couple of tee shots in the air. Felt like I could cover the ball more with my irons.

"Just excited that I'm feeling better. So that's good, going into the next few weeks, and nice to sign off with a good score."

McIlroy tweaked his lower right back last week while at home between the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship and didn’t hit practice shots leading up to the start of the tournament, leading to some uncomfortable moments during the first round.

He shot 70-67-71 and was nine shots back of Hovland starting Sunday, in a tie for eighth. He began the week in third place, starting with an adjusted score of 7 under par and three strokes back of leader Scottie Scheffler.

McIlroy does not have much time to rest and recuperate. He said he hopes the injury—which has worked its way into his right hip—settles down by the end of the week.

The following week he plays in the DP World Tour’s Irish Open, followed by the BMW PGA Championship, the tour’s flagship event. After a week off, it’s the Ryder Cup.

"It's much better," said McIlroy, who won twice during this PGA Tour season as well as a DP World Tour victory in Dubai. “So just take it easy and maybe hit a few balls sort of closer to the weekend next week to get ready for Ireland. So probably put the clubs away for three or four days and make sure that everything body-wise is good. Start up again and get ready for the next few weeks."

McIlroy said the play of Hovland, along with season-long play of Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and other European Ryder Cup players has him looking forward to the competition, which begins Sept. 29 in Italy.

"I think we’re all excited," McIlroy said. “There’s a lot of us that were in that team at Whistling Straits (where the U.S. won 19-9) and that didn’t very nice, didn’t feel good. So I’m excited to get back over to Europe. We’re all sort of making our way over to Europe a couple weeks early.

"So it will be nice to all get together, get some early team dinners before the week in Rome, and sort of really feel like that sort of team chemistry is starting already. I think we’re all excited. We’re all, for the most part, playing really good. There’s still a few weeks to go but, I mean it’s the next best thing in all of our calendars."