'Lost' McIlroy feels 'far away' after finishing 66th

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Aug 17, 2026, 05:27 AM ET

Rory McIlroy expressed concerns about the state of his game after finishing above only two other players in the FedEx St. Jude Championship, saying he felt "lost."

The world No. 2, who had not played since last month's Open Championship, also admitted he is "so far away from where I need to be" heading into next week's BMW Championship, the second event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

"Obviously didn't come in here with a ton of reps. [It] almost felt like the more the week went on, the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit," the Northern Irishman said after a 2-over 72 saw him finish 66th out of 68, failing to break par in four rounds at TPC Southwind.

"The swing wasn't in sync and obviously I didn't do a ton of practice coming in here. I'm so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I've just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit.

Regardless of his result at Bellerive in St. Louis next week, McIlroy is assured of making to the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship as he looks to win an unprecedented fourth FedEx Cup title and his first since 2022.

"I guess nice to shake the rust off a little bit but I'm going to have to work pretty hard between now and next Thursday to feel like I have any sort of golf game to compete next week," he said.

"To me it's more about obviously the execution of what I'm doing right now, and the execution wasn't there this week. I'm going to have to sort of put the head down and grind from now until Thursday to try to feel like I have any sort of chance next week."

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler won his first event since January on Sunday, recording an eight-shot victory in Memphis.

Scheffler's win was his 21st since the start of 2022, 10 more than his nearest rival McIlroy.