Rory McIlroy sets sights on ‘four or five’ Tour wins

The 23-year-old’s win at the Deutsche Bank Championship means he enters the third FedEx Cup play-off event at the top of the points standings.

The Northern Irishman has been grouped with Nick Watney and Tiger Woods, second and third in the standings, and is happy with his current performance levels.

“I’m very pleased with how I’ve played the last few weeks,” he told pgatour.com.

“(I’m) very pleased at how hard I worked on my game leading up to these few weeks because I felt like it was nearly there, and I just needed to stay patient.”

McIlroy and Woods have won three PGA Tour events each so far this year and now McIlroy is determined to add to his tally. “It’s rare to see guys having six and seven-win seasons,” he said. “Tiger did it for so many years. Three is a great number, but I’d like to make it four or five, obviously, after the FedEx Cup.”

It remains to be seen if last year’s Masters winner, Charl Schwartzel, will be one of the players teeing off in Indiana.

The South African is inside the top 70 places and therefore qualifies to compete in the tournament, but he is still suffering from a hip injury which he  confirmed was first suffered back in June.

“I actually injured it at the  US Open, and it seems to be coming back,” he said. “It’s not as advanced as it was there. It’s not torn, but it’s very uncomfortable, and I don’t want to get to that stage where I can’t play for the rest of the year.

“But I’ll see. Maybe we’ll have to get some rest and maybe  it’ll be okay, but it’s very uncomfortable at the moment.”