McIlroy: Other courses suit me better

Rory McIlroy was unable to challenge for victory at the RBC Heritage

Rory McIlroy admitted he is unlikely to make the RBC Heritage an annual part of his PGA Tour schedule after a disappointing week at Hilton Head.

The world No 1 was making his first start at Harbour Town Golf Links since a tied-58th finish in 2009, with McIlroy once again finishing a long way off the pace in South Carolina.

McIlroy went into the final round five strokes back and saw his hopes dashed by a double-bogey at the par-three fourth, with a one-under 70 seeing him end the week in a share of 41st.

McIlroy mixed four birdies with one bogey and one double-bogey

“Once I got here and I played the golf course, I sort of remembered why I haven’t been here for a while,” McIlroy said after his final round. “It’s tough.

“Like it’s a lovely place. There’s other courses on Tour that probably fit my game a little bit better and obviously the week after the Masters [when the tournament is traditionally held in mid-April] is always a tough one. Guys like to come here and decompress, but my idea of decompression is not seeing golf clubs for a week.

McIlroy will feature at the Travelers Championship, which gets underway on June 25

“I got off to a decent start and then the ball in the water on four just sort of stopped any momentum. I played okay after that, I guess. I birdied nine and then birdied a couple coming in on the homestretch.

“It’s fine. It’s one of those weeks where, obviously, low scores, very bunched. You had to hole a lot of putts and I didn’t over the week. But I’m still pretty happy with how I played going into the next weekend in Hartford.”

Rose also started went into Sunday five strokes back and got off to a hot start with an eagle and two birdies in his first six holes, before bouncing back from a mid-round stutter to birdie two of his last four holes to sign for a final-round 65.

“The putter was probably the cold part of me,” Rose said. “I think I was negative strokes gained putting this week and to shoot 16 under with that means I did a lot of other things really, really well.

Rose shot rounds of 70, 67, 66 and 65 to finish on 16 under

“On a birdie fest golf course in a birdie fest week you need to have your putter backing you up a bit. I never felt like I was going to win today, but certainly playing the last few holes, I felt like I was playing for a decent position.

“Last week I had the putt on 18 that I knew really meant something. I’m getting myself into the right end of things, the thick end of things on Sundays. So that’s very encouraging going forward.”