McIlroy limps out of PGA Championship practice round | Golf | Sport

However, his prospects have been somewhat undermined by a nagging blister. The 37-year-old paused his practice session on Tuesday, removed his shoe and inspected his right foot. This follows reports of him limping at the Truist Championship due to a blister on his toe.

“Yeah, I’ve got a blister on my pinky toe on my right foot,” said McIlroy at Quail Hollow just days prior. He added: “But it’s underneath my nail. So I can’t really get to it or so it’s a little sore, but I’ll be all right. Started to feel it like Friday afternoon.”

McIlroy insisted the blister was no excuse for any dip in form over the coming weeks, following a five-under display at the Truist Championship. He explained: “No, not at all. No, that was – I wish that was an excuse, but absolutely not (laughing). No, it’s fine. I’ll be okay.”

McIlroy also acknowledged he has several areas to address before the second major of the season. He said: “I think the range session last night was good.

“Figured out a couple of things. As I said, I feel like I got into a couple of bad habits just because of that left-to-right wind on the range all week. So straighten that out.

“I’m going to go home tonight, which will be nice, spend a night in my own bed and practice at home tomorrow. Try to get a, you know, just sort of continue that feel and bring that up to Philadelphia for the rest of the week.”

McIlroy had already paid a visit to Aronimink ahead of the tournament and cheekily quipped that he ‘lived’ there in a pointed nod to the criticism he received over his Masters preparations. He laughed, joking: “I lived there for a week. Just played it every day. No, I went up and back in the same day. It was good to get — we played the BMW there in 2018, but the course played a lot differently.

“It was wet in 2018 and the greens didn’t play as fast or as severe as what I felt like they played last week when I played. So it’s not a long golf course, but the big defense is the greens and they can tuck the pins away if they want to.

“But yeah it was nice to get an early look at it. It just means that the week of the tournament you’re not under pressure to play a lot of holes and historically the practice rounds at the PGA can be excruciatingly long, so it’s probably going to just be nine holes Tuesday, nine holes Wednesday.”