Rory McIlroy has said he plans to cut down the number of tournaments he enters next season after feeling the physical demands of his schedule this year.
McIlroy finished tied-ninth at the Tour Championship at the East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia after carding a 66 on Sunday to finish at 16-under. It was his 22nd event of the season. He has five tournaments remaining.
The Northern Irishman came close to ending his decade-long major championship title drought at the U.S. Open, only to miss two short putts in the final three holes at Pinehurst and watch Bryson DeChambeau lift the trophy.
“It’s been a long season, and I’m going to just have to think about trying to build in a few extra breaks here and there next year and going forward because I felt like I hit a bit of a wall sort of post-U.S. Open, and still feel a little bit of that hangover,” McIlroy said.
When asked how many tournaments is too many in one year, McIlroy said: “27. I’m usually sort of like a 22 sort of person. But again, that was when I was sort of in my 20s and didn’t have the responsibilities that I do now.
“I’m going to try to cut it back to like 18 or 20 a year going forward, I think.”
Since the U.S. Open, McIlroy has had a mixed bag of results. He finish tied-fourth at the Scottish Open the following month before missing the cut in the Open at Royal Troon. He also tied in 68th place at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August, as well as tied-11th at the BMW Championship at Castle Pines.
“My season is not over, obviously. I’ve still got five events left to play,” he added.
“But yeah, it’s been, I feel like the tournaments came thick and fast, and obviously with the Olympics thrown in there, as well, this year, it sort of condensed everything a bit.”