Rory McIlroy expects to resolve PGA Tour membership issue: "We're figuring it out"

Masters champion Rory McIlroy says he's certain he will reach a compromise with the PGA Tour to fulfil his membership requirements.

The Northern Irishman is likely to fall one event short of the 15 needed to maintain his "home tour" status, allowing McIlroy to compete on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour without the need for conflicting event releases.

It was previously reported by Bob Harig of The Daily Drive that McIlroy will likely be given a pass, thanks to a little-known rule in the player handbook that allows the PGA Tour commissioner to reduce the number for medical reasons or extraordinary circumstances.

However, a decision is yet to be made.

Still, McIlroy told reporters at the FedEx St. Jude Championship that he has been having plenty of positive talks with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp.

"I think we've built up a really good relationship and, yeah, we've had a couple of conversations last week about what I can do with the Tour going forward to, I guess, fulfill the obligation to, I guess, keep my membership," McIlroy said.

"We've had productive conversations, we're figuring it out and it will all be fine. It will be a little bit of work between us."

McIlroy wasn't expected to play in the first leg of the PGA Tour's play-offs last week but apparently changed his mind as he felt taking an extended break before the BMW Championship and Tour Championship would be "too much".

After the conclusion of the Tour Championship, McIlroy plans to compete at the Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship, DP World India Championship, Abu Dhabi Championship, DP World Tour Championship and the Australian Open.

"I've got a lot of golf left this year after these events," said McIlroy.

"I play six times after the Tour Championship all around the world, so I've tried to pace myself for that throughout the year to get to this point. Brian and I have had some good dialogue and we're figuring it out."

McIlroy struggled on his return to competition last week.

Making his first start since The Open in July, the world number two toiled to a 66th-place finish - 25 strokes behind champion Scottie Scheffler. 

After failing to record a single round under par across four days, McIlroy said he "felt lost" with his golf swing at times.

"I'm so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance," he said.  

"I've just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit.

"Obviously didn't come in here with a ton of reps, (it) almost felt like the more the week went on the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit.

"I guess [it was] nice to shake the rust off a little bit but I'm going to have to work pretty hard between now and next Thursday to feel like I have any sort of golf game to compete next week.

"To me it's more about the execution of what I'm doing right now, and the execution wasn't there this week."