McIlroy: 'My game isn't where it needs to be'

Rory McIlroy was never a threat to win the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs at The Northern Trust.

He found just 50 percent of the fairways and 63 percent of the greens in regulation, while ranking near the bottom in putts per GIR at Glen Oaks Club, carding rounds of 73-68-69-72.

"My game isn't where it needs to be," McIlroy told Sky Sports. "But it's okay, conditions were tricky out there. This afternoon the course played quite firm and fairways were bouncing out a lot. Again, my battling qualities, that's all I really have right now. I'm sort of a little inconsistent with my swing and sort of with everything else."

The Northern Irishman is projected to finish 44th in the playoff standings heading into next week's Dell Technologies Championship in Boston, but needs to climb inside the top 30 in order to qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake.

"It's just a matter of trying to go out there and put the best possible rounds together and see where that leaves me."