Rory McIlroy believes he has plenty of "good stuff" to take to Ryder Cup

Rory McIlroy admitted the mistakes he has made over three days of the BMW PGA Championship have prevented him from contending for the title, but he is delighted to have plenty of "good stuff" in his game to take to the Ryder Cup.

McIlroy has been a birdie machine at Wentworth this week, making 17 of them in total, but his score has been scuppered by a number of errors, in particular over the closing two holes.

The world No 2 bogeyed the 18th on Thursday, made double-bogey there in round 2 after blocking his drive out-of-bounds, and he made a mess of the long 17th in his third round and ran up another costly double-bogey 7.

He had made a bright start on Saturday with birdies at the 3rd and 4th, but he gave one back at the 6th before he encountered some bush trouble after a wayward approach to the 9th, where he eventually holed a good putt for a 6.

McIlroy rebounded with three birdies over the next four holes and added another at 16, but he carved his second into trouble at 17 and had to take a penalty drop.

The Masters champion did finally get his first birdie of the week at the last to return a 70 and close on 5-under par for the tournament, but that left him eight shots off the lead at the time.

But although he is likely to be too far behind to mount a serious challenge on Sunday, he is delighted with the number of red numbers on his scorecard, filling him with confidence ahead of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage.

"There have been a lot of birdies (17) and quite a lot of good stuff, but just a few too many of those blue numbers as well," McIlroy told Sky Sports. "I think I've played the last two holes in 4-over par combined this week, and those are two holes you're looking to birdie and end your round on a good note.

"Over the last three days, I've made a couple of doubles on 17 and 18, and a bogey as well. So it could be a lot better and I feel like I could be in the mix, especially as I've made 17 birdies, but there have just been a few too many sloppy things in there.

"But overall, the good stuff is in there, which is a good thing for that little match play event we've got coming up in a couple of week's time."

McIlroy also reflected on his epic finish to the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club last week, when he holed a 30-foot putt for eagle to force a playoff against Joakim Lagergren before pipping the Swede to the title on the third extra hole.

"I've been in these positions before and I have faltered more times than I haven't", he said. "I've probably had around 15 of those putts in my career to either win a golf tournament or to tie and get into a playoff, and I've only holed maybe a couple of them.

"So I think the more you put yourself in that position, sooner or later one is going to go in. I've had so many not go in but, thankfully, that one did in front of all those people at the Irish Open. 

"I don't hole all of those putts and I never will, it's impossible to do that. But the more you put yourself in those positions, the law of averages is going to work out that a couple are going to drop. Then you can create moments like that one last Sunday.

"Going into the back third of my career, I live for those moments. Those are the things that get me up in the morning and get me to work hard to have more of those moments.

"I know that my time in golf is limited. I still have a good few years left, but those are the things that really excite me and, what I did there on Sunday, hopefully I'll have a few more of those over the next few years.