McIlroy’s PGA Tour year ended unceremoniously last week in Chicago with a poorest FedEx Cup standing since joining the Tour full-time in 2011.
And in the process of finishing well down the board at Conway Farms, McIlroy also failed to qualify for this week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
However, it didn’t help McIlroy’s year that he sat out nearly six weeks early on in 2017 after a rib tear and only to then do further damage returning in May.
It is the reason why McIlroy will shut down his season after contesting next month’s Alfred Dunhill Links title and forgo the European Tour’s Final Series so that he is fully healed for the start of 2018.
And his New Year is likely, and for a first time in his career, to commence on the Californian coast.
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“I definitely think the injury was the biggest thing that affected my season,” he said to NoLayingUp.com.
“If someone was to say, ‘why didn’t things go the way you wanted them to this year?’ I would say because of the injury.
“Also, you swing away from pain, so I started to get the club way on the inside on the downswing and my path was so far from in-and-out because anything going left at impact was putting pressure on that rib and on that joint and it would hurt.
“So, I played for four months without hitting a shot left-to-right and you can’t do that.
“It made me play a certain way and I am proud of the fact I used to be a draw bias player and the last few years I have been able to hit it both ways and I think that has been a big part of my success as I am able to get to back right pins now so that I can hit it to the middle of the green and I can fade it back.
“This year I have not been able to do that and that’s why, and if you look at my statistics, my wedge play has not been all that good while my iron-play also has not been good.
“But then over the last few weeks I have been able to make a few tweaks in my swing which is starting to make it feel a little bit better.
“That is why it is so nice I now have this time in the off-season and work on this stuff so as to make sure that it hopefully never happens again.”
And in explaining how he ‘re-injured’ himself, McIlroy drew comparison in how he suffered a freak ankle injury mid-2015 that saw him also sidelined for six weeks and while his ankle has since been of no concern, the rib injury has been now lingering for some nine months.
“After getting married and going on our honeymoon I got back into practice and instead of gradually increasing the practice each day the first day I got back I was out there for five to six hours hitting balls and playing and practicing,” he said.
“My back felt a little tight the next day and I guess that was my body saying you need to slow down.
“But then I went back out and practiced more the next day and then on the Monday of the Players, and I had just announced I had signed with TaylorMade, I felt it go again.
“I remember saying to myself. ‘this is not good’.
“But again, I persevered and I played through it and I managed to make the cut at The Players and I finished 35th.
“I then went back and got another scan and while I had no re-fractured it but there was a big stress response in the same area though more the joint this rather than the rib.
“So, I had to shut down my season again.
“Even though I am now going to take these six weeks off in getting myself back to 100% fitness, it is something I am going to have to work on the next 12 to 18 months and really take care of it.
“So, it’s been the rib and the rib joint that has been the problem and you think about how mangled my ankle was mid-2015 after that football accident as I was back in six weeks and it has not given me any problem.
“Yet this tiny little area in my back or rib or whatever has given me all these problems.
“So, while it’s been annoying we know what it is which is a good thing and I haven’t done it any harm by playing these last few weeks, and when I come back after these six weeks or so in January I should be ready to go.”