Rory McIlroy says his focus has been on the next few weeks for quite some time as he targets his fifth Major Championship.
The Co Down star had been consistently in contention for wins before golf was suspended, picking up where he left off in 2019 by finishing in the top five in each of the first four PGA Tour events this year.
But the 31-year-old has looked somewhat out of sorts since returning from the coronavirus break in the Charles Schwab Challenge last month.
He heads into The US PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on Thursday having recently been knocked off the World No 1 recently and off the back of a 47th-placed finish at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational over the weekend.
“Because of all that’s happened this year, it has made me focus a little more on just these weeks that are coming up,” McIlroy told The Guardian.
“Everything was normal then we had this massive gap where I had time to think: ‘OK, what are you looking forward to after this break?’
"It’s a funny year, different circumstances, but I have three opportunities from now until November to add to my major tally.
"Those were the three, even in quarantine, I was looking towards. Once the schedule was set it was those three events I was trying to get ready for.”
Shane Lowry will travel to San Francisco for the year's first major this week in a confident mood after a par save on the 18th recorded a top-10 finish for the Open champion in Memphis yesterday.
Padraig Harrington won't be part of the Irish challenge this week after the 2007
