Rory McIlroy says it is time to “focus on me” and he will no longer come out swinging against LIV Golf.
But the downbeat Ulsterman admitted he will go into the US PGA with “less expectations” after his latest Masters heartache.
The four-time Major winner took three weeks off after missing the cut at the Masters and then struggled on his return to action at Quail Hollow.
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Even playing Oak Hill this week – his wife Erica is from Rochester and he is a member – could not lift his subdued pre-tournament mood on Tuesday.
As a member of the Player Advisory Council, McIlroy has been the leading critic of Greg Norman and the Saudi-backed league while also backing big changes to the PGA Tour.
McIlroy still finished in the top eight in all four Majors last year while lifting the FedEx Cup and returned to world No 1.
But his latest bid to complete his career Grand Slam in Augusta ended in familiar disappointment and he reported a worrying two-way miss last time out. He is also ranked 172nd on the PGA Tour for putting.
After spending the last week working on his swing in Florida with his coach Michael Bannon, McIlroy reckoned taking a vow of silence on golf’s civil war will help him back on the golf course.
Asked if it was now his strategy and it was time to be “selfish” about his golf, he said: “Absolutely. Yeah. I would rather people be talking about me for my golf rather than stuff that I am doing behind the scenes or what I have said in a press conference.
“I don’t regret anything that I have done because I think what has been done is really helpful. But now that the wheels have been set in motion, it is time to focus on me and focus on playing great golf and trying to get back to winning ways.”
McIlroy gave up $3m in PIP bonus money to skip the elevated event at the RBC Heritage to get over the Masters.
“It wasn’t really the performance of Augusta that’s hard to get over, it’s the mental aspect and the deflation of it and sort of trying to get your mind in the right place to start going forward again,” he said.
“But I keep going back to the big picture. I have had slumps and lulls in my career and I have been able to figure out ways to get out of them and play great golf again.”
But in a press conference of mixed messages, he said his mental approach will see him now have “less expectations”.
He explained: “Just sort of trying to sort of be in a good spot with taking what comes and not thinking about things too much, not getting ahead of myself.
“If I can execute the way that I feel like I can, then I still believe that I’m one of the best players in the world and I can produce good golf to have a chance of winning this week.”
McIlroy’s last Major win came in this event back in August 2014.
“If I don’t win another tournament for the rest of my career, I still see my career as a success,” he said. “I still stand up here as a successful person in my eyes. That’s what defines that.”
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