Rory McIlroy clocking up more air miles as he swaps Lydd for Tokyo

The tracking history of the Gulfstream jet which brought Rory McIlroy from one location to another the past few weeks makes for interesting observation: from Dublin to Edinburgh on the Monday after the Irish Open; then from Edinburgh (a Saturday departure after missing the cut at the Scottish Open) to Lydd in south-east England.

On Monday McIlroy posted an image on his social media platforms of the BMW which he’d used for shorter, road trips alongside the private jet which would take him from Lydd across the Atlantic for a fuel stop at Rochester in New York and then onwards to his home in West Palm Beach in Florida, for a week at home with his family.

McIlroy's next flight will take him further around the globe next week when he flies to Tokyo as part of a four-strong Irish Olympic team - which will also feature Shane Lowry, Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow - for the men's individual tournament at Kasumigaseki Country Club which, apart from the prospect of winning a medal, will likely be used to get some momentum into a late season flourish that will take in a WGC in Memphis and the three FedEx Cup playoffs. After that, there is the Ryder Cup to come.

In McIlroy’s own words after finishing up at Royal St George’s, “I’ve got probably four tournaments between now and the Ryder Cup, and I sort of just want to focus on them first,” which would indicate his priority is on that lucrative stretch of late-season events on the PGA Tour.

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McIlroy also talked of making “bad decisions” and “mental errors” in his disappointing play at the 149th Open. “I need to do a better job of just maybe being a little bit more disciplined,” he admitted.

His time on this side of the Atlantic most certainly didn’t produced the results that he’d wished for, evidenced in those three weeks by him dropping out of the world’s top-10 down to 15th in the latest updated rankings. Back in May he had also slipped to 15 (which represented his worst standing since he was 17 in November 2009) and he had moved back to as high as seventh in May (after winning the Wells Fargo) before again drifting ominously back.