PONTE VEDRA BEACH — If TPC Sawgrass offers a major championship pop quiz every year, Rory McIlroy doesn’t know if he’ll need to take another test before the Masters.
The World No. 2 navigated a back injury that interrupted his preparation for the Players Championship, where a final-round 71 left him at even-par 288 for the week.
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The defending Players champion then spoke with reporters about the shape of his game three weeks out from play at Augusta National.
“I’m happy I got through four days and my body feels good,” McIlroy said. “I feel like my game sort of progressively got a little bit better as the week went on, even though the scores probably didn’t reflect it over the weekend. I feel like it was important to make the weekend here and play an extra couple of days.”
McIlroy is on the fence about adding another tournament ahead of competing at Augusta. After next week’s Valspar Invitational near Tampa, Fla., the PGA Tour heads to the Lone Star state for the Texas Children’s Houston Open and the Valero Texas Open. McIlroy has played one of each tournament during the past two years, including a T-5 at Houston’s Memorial Park before his Masters triumph at year ago.
“I’ll see. I haven’t really made a decision either way,” McIlroy said. “I’ll see how my body feels. We’ll see how I feel in practice and at home, and if I get itchy feet at home maybe add an event at some point.”
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The Northern Irishman aggravated an injury in the gym on Saturday morning of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, withdrawing before the third round. He didn’t arrive at TPC Sawgrass until Wednesday afternoon, where he only had a range session and some short-game practice on the course.
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“Really just [need to] see how the next week goes, see how once I get back to actually a full practice schedule and in the gym, how my body reacts to that, and then I’ll see,” McIlroy said of his schedule.
At TPC Sawgrass, McIlroy ranked third in the field for strokes gained/off the tee and 45th in approach play. But on the greens, the 36-year-old struggled, losing more than five strokes over the course of the week.
“I hit the ball well. I just didn’t make anything on the greens,” he said. “A couple little things to work on, but overall, not the week that I wanted.”
With 46 of the world’s top 50 in the field and a demanding Pete Dye course, the Players has offered something resembling a pre-majors examination since the tournament moved to March in 2019. However, the fact the Stadium course “can get a little funky,” McIlroy says, makes it hard to foreshadow his Masters hopes from his play this week.
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“I don’t know, sometimes you feel like it tells you stuff, and then other times it sort of doesn’t,” McIlroy said of TPC Sawgrass, where he won in 2019 and 2025. “I’ve had bad results here and went on to have a good season, and I’ve had good results here, and the two [wins] here I’ve went on to have good seasons.
McIlroy noted how the five-inch rough and green surrounds are different from Augusta. “I would say you have to be really on to shoot scores here,” McIlroy said. “I guess it tells you a lot about that. I do feel like I saw some good signs.”
The question is whether the golf world will see more of those signs before McIlroy drives up Magnolia Lane as the Masters champion.
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