Rory McIlroy is taking a few weeks off from golf following last week's PGA Championship. The No. 7 player in the world will skip next week's Northern Trust, which is the first of four FedEx Cup Playoff events, before presumably returning for the Dell Technologies Championship over Labor Day.
"I need to assess where I'm at," McIlroy said after last week's PGA. "I think the best thing for me to do right now is just sort of take a couple days off, reflect on what I need to do going forward. The best thing might be to take that first FedExCup week off and work on my game and come back, hopefully, in a better place for Boston.
"Historically, the first FedEx playoff event hasn't been my best event of the four. I've played well in Boston. I've played pretty well in the other two."
McIlroy, who finished in the top 10 in two majors in 2018 and won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, is currently ranked No. 21 in the FedEx Cup and shouldn't need to do too much at the Dell Technologies or BMW Championship to make it to the Tour Championship.
The time off is understandable and maybe even advisable with the grind of the playoffs (four events in five weeks) followed by a Ryder Cup in which McIlroy will be expected to partially carry the European side.
McIlroy has discussed various tweaks he's trying to make to his swing, and a two-week break to work on them for somebody who hasn't had very many of them after a busy summer on multiple continents should be rejuvenating before the stretch run of 2018.
He has won the Dell Technologies Championship twice (2012, 2016).
