Rory McIlroy did not mince words after a nearly last-place finish at the 2026 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“Obviously didn’t come in here with a ton of reps,” he told reporters after his final round on Sunday, August 16. “[It] almost felt like the more the week went on, the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit.”
McIlroy, 37, finished 66th out of 68 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, the first of three events in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs.
“The swing wasn’t in sync and obviously I didn’t do a ton of practice coming in here,” McIlroy said. “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.”
McIlroy had not played since the 2026 Open Championship in mid-July, amid his desire to maintain a lighter schedule this season.
“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,” McIlroy said, pointing to this week’s BMW Championship, which starts Thursday, August 20, at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.
He added, “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.”
McIlroy is currently 13th in the season-long FedExCup Playoff standings. The top 30 golfers will advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta later this month.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler won the 2026 St. Jude Championship in a rout, finishing 17-under par, eight strokes better than second-place finisher, Si Woo Kim.
“I felt like a week like this was coming,” Scheffler, 30, said after his victory. “I felt like I was on repeat all year just being like, ‘Hey, I’m playing solid. I’m close.’ It feels good to be answering some different questions at the end of this week.”
It marked Scheffler’s 21st career tournament win, but his first since The American Express tournament in January.
“I felt like I found something just getting my hands on the club,” Scheffler added. “I had a really good kind of prep week coming in, probably the best I played at home over the course of this year. I didn’t really feel like I needed to be on the range hitting balls. I was just getting out playing, competing.”
