Portstewart, Northern Ireland ….

Rory McIlroy joked he now likens himself to Beatle drummer  Ringo Starr having fallen to World No. 4 ahead of this week’s Irish Open at Portstewart.

The defending champion and Irish Open host dropped to No. 3 in the world in missing the U.S. Open cut but then was bumped back to No. 4 by Jordan Spieth when the Texas brilliantly won the recent Travelers Championship.

And this was after McIlroy had rebounded in suburban Cromwell with a closing 64 and using a third different putter that week.

“I am back to Ringo”, he said smiling.

“It only bothers me I’m not where I want to be.  But I feel like there’s been a couple of things that have been out of my control this year that have led to that with the injuries and stuff.

“Like I’ve said all along, winning golf tournaments and playing well takes care of the rankings.  It’s funny, I don’t look at it as much now as I would if I was No. 1.  It’s always nice to see your lead.

“If I was Dustin Johnson, I would be looking at that thing every Monday morning.

“The good thing is I know where I am and I realise that I’m a long way off where I want to be, but I can’t think about that at the minute.  I just have to think about trying to win golf tournaments, trying to get in contention again at golf tournaments, first of all.

“And then just playing well, and playing well takes care of a lot of that stuff”.

In his week away from competition, McIlroy has played practice rounds not only at Portstewart and nearby Royal Portrush, and venue for the 2o19 Open, but also Royal Birkdale and host venue for next fortnight’s Open.

And walking with McIlroy around Royal Birkdale was putting coach, Phil Kenyon who is based in nearby Formby.

“With Phil’s help I have whittled it down to just one putter I want to use,” he said.

“Phil walked around 18 holes with me at Birkdale last Thursday, and then I spent a little bit of time with him on the putting green after that.

“We spent the whole day, and then we spent about an hour on Monday together, as well, here.  I went up and played Portrush and saw the new holes, and then came over here and did a bit of practice.

“I’ve actually also set up a little bit of a putting studio in my apartment in Holywood.  I’ve got the mirror down and got a few little devices.

“Sunday night was an evening of watching the golf on the PGA Tour and me practicing my putting on the carpet.

“It is exciting stuff.  It feels good.  It feels better than it was.  I feel like I was thinking a little too much about it.  It was getting a little bit complicated.  Gets me to simplified things a little bit and that’s what we’ve tried to do.

“And it was good to see Phil as well and get back to a style of putter that I’ve had success with in the past”.