Rory McIlroy back in Europe at BMW PGA Championship after pep talk from wife Erica and dragging himself off sofa
RORY McILROY had to “drag himself off the sofa” to gear up for the BMW PGA Championship, after an exhausting run of events.
But now he is back on his feet, the world No 2 - who pocketed £12.3million in his FedEx Cup triumph - is determined to win at least two of his remaining five starts, to equal his career best haul of five victories in 2012.
McIlroy says a punishing sequence of 13 tournaments in 16 weeks had left him drained, and he did not even think about hitting balls after losing out in a play-off in Switzerland three weeks ago.
He explained: “After that I just wanted time time away from the clubs, and after relaxing back home in Florida I had to drag myself off the sofa last week.
“I told myself you're playing next week, you've got to do something. So I hit balls on Saturday and Sunday before flying over here. My first day back on the golf course was Tuesday, but the game feels good.
“I'm still swinging it well, and hitting the ball well. I played pretty good in the practice round. I’ve played a lot of golf this year, and I don’t think taking a couple of weeks off is going to do me any harm.
“I needed those two weeks on the sofa, just to sort of reset and get myself in the right place mentally to get motivated - to go again for this last little bit of the year.
'WHAT POINT ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE?'
“My goal now is get a couple more wins, and I feel like I'm playing well enough. The most I've ever won in a season is five. I'd love to at least equal that, and try to better it if I can.
“It's about trying not to let my foot off the pedal, and finish the year the way I started it, on a very positive note. I’m going to play five more events, take most of December and January off, and go again.”
At the start of the year it looked like McIlroy might miss this event too. He announced he was letting his European Tour membership lapse, so he would not be forced to play enough events to keep his card.
He changed his mind and rejoined in May after reaching a special arrangement with Tour boss Keith Pelley – and revealed it was his American wife, Erica, who was the driving force behind that decision.
McIlroy added: “She sort of said to me what are you trying to do? What sort of point are you trying to make?
“My thing was I knew at the start of this year that I wasn't going to play the Irish Open, and the rule was that you have to play an extra two events if you don't play your home open.
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“But after Erica's pep talk I sat down with Keith and said I can't possibly do that. So Keith came back to me and said OK, we’ll make a compromise where instead of playing two extra, you have to play three Rolex Series events a year.
“And I said: ‘Done, 100 per cent done.' Once we had that conversation, it was totally fine. And this is a big week.
“This is the start of the Ryder Cup qualification process and you want to get off to a good start. I don't want to be in the position where you have to rely on a pick, so I need to get some points on the board early, and keep it ticking along."
