Rory McIlroy Hoping to Boost an ‘O.K. Season’ As FedEx Cup Playoffs Begin

The three-time FedEx Cup winner has three weeks to overtake Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.

Rory McIlroy has two PGA Tour wins in 2024 but fell short in the season's biggest events. / Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Rory McIlroy is looking at the FedEx Cup playoffs as an opportunity to turn what he called a pretty good year into a great year.

Having won twice on the PGA Tour—as well as a DP World Tour event in Dubai—McIlroy can add a fourth FedEx Cup title if he is able to overtake leader Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele in the next three weeks.

Despite Scheffler’s big lead on the back of a six-victory season, the format allows for four times the points at the first two FedEx playoff events and a reset to a staggered-strokes start at the beginning of the Tour Championship in two weeks.

The first of the three events begins Thursday with the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind.

“I certainly don't want to sit up here and belittle my achievements at all this year and what I've done, but at the same time, yeah, I expect a certain standard from myself,” said McIlroy, who won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Shane Lowry and also captured the Wells Fargo Championship.

“I've won a couple of times. I've had an opportunity to win a few more times than that and haven't been able to get over the line. So I would have liked to have added a couple more to that win column.

“But there's still three tournaments left in this PGA Tour season. I think I've actually got eight or nine tournaments left this year, but three on the PGA Tour, to turn an O.K. season into a very good one.”

McIlroy, of course, had a great opportunity to win the U.S. Open, where he finished second to Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst. And he was in contention to win or at least earn a medal two weeks ago at the Olympics, only to find water late in the final round to hurt his chances.

Afterward, McIlroy referred to himself as the “nearly man” after shooting a 66 that saw him tie for fifth but make a double bogey on the 15th hole when he had pulled within two shots of the lead.

His reference was to the close calls he had throughout the year and the inability to win a fifth major over the past 10 years.

“I just have to finish off tournaments better. There's been glimpses where I have done it. Like Quail Hollow, for example,” he said.

“But obviously the U.S. Open, Olympics ... it's just sort of—I feel like this year and maybe the last couple years I've just found a way to hit the wrong shot at the wrong time. That might go into preparation and trying to practice a little more under pressure at home.

“You go through these things in golf, and you go through these little challenges, and you just have to try to figure out a way to get through it, and my challenge right now is that. It's really good but not quite good enough to sort of take home the silverware. It's just something I'm having to work through.”

Each of the first two playoff events offers 2,000 points to the winner and only Schauffele can catch Scheffler this week. But it requires a Schauffele victory and for Scheffler to finish outside of the top 40—something he’s done just once this year, a tie for 41st at the U.S. Open.

McIlroy has won the FedEx Cup under different formats. In 2016, he captured both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup title. The format changed in 2019 to have just one winner, and McIlroy won that year as well as in 2022.

“I love this format because if it wasn't this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he's so far ahead,” McIlroy said. “So I really like this format.

“He’s so far ahead and you don’t expect Scottie to finish outside the top 5, either. I think it makes the Tour Championship more exciting from a consumer standpoint.

“Is it the fairest reflection of who's been the best player of the year? Probably not. But I think at this point we're not in for totally fair, we're in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can.”