World No. 3 golfer Rory McIlroy admitted on Saturday that his off-the-course responsibilities are starting to weigh on him.
McIlroy's off-the-course duties include organizing players-only meetings and formulating new models for the PGA Tour while serving as a player director on the Tour Policy Board. He also has been the most ardent PGA Tour player to publicly point the finger at the upstart LIV Golf League and CEO Greg Norman.
McIlroy's latest on-the-course result wasn't up to par by his standards, however. The 33-year-old Northern Irishman missed the cut Saturday at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponta Vedra Beach, Fla.
"Yeah, it's just the time management," McIlroy said. "The golf out here, that's fine, but it's just more the time at home to make sure you're getting prepared, to make sure that you're doing everything you can to be ready once you show up to these weeks. That's where I've maybe sacrificed a little bit of time with some of this other stuff.
"As I said, I'm ready to get back to being purely a golfer."
McIlroy, the 2019 Players champion, missed the cut for the sixth time in 13 starts at the tournament. He followed an opening-round 76 with a 73 to finish at 5 over.
"Yeah, just very blah," McIlroy said of his performance. "Yeah, I guess the course, you just have to be really on to play well here. If you're a little off, it definitely magnifies where you are off. It is, it's a bit of an enigma. Some years I come here, and like it feels easier than others.
"It's just a tricky golf course, and you don't hit fairways and you've got your work cut out for you."
McIlroy will play in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on March 22-25 before competing in the Masters Tournament on April 6-9.
"I'd love to get back to being a golfer, yeah. Look, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and it's been -- honestly, it's been a busy sort of six or eight months," McIlroy said.
"But as I said at the start of the week, everything has sort of been announced now, and the wheels have been put in motion, so it should obviously quiet down from here."
McIlroy has won four major tournaments but the last such victory was in 2014.
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