Rory McIlroy plays tennis after first-round 68 at FedEx St. Jude Championship

Rory McIlroy opened his FedExCup Playoffs campaign with a 2-under 68 at TPC Southwind, but his work wasn’t done.

McIlroy headed to a nearby tennis center, as captured in a photo shared by the PGA TOUR Champions social media channels – posing alongside Wiley Barron, son of Champions Tour major winner Doug Barron.

Prior to hitting the hard court, McIlroy navigated the FedEx St. Jude Championship’s opening round with an eagle and two bogeys before closing with two birdies in his final three holes; he trails early leader Chris Kirk (64) by four strokes into Friday. It’s a solid start for McIlroy, who entered the week at No. 3 on the FedExCup – behind Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele – as he eyes a record fourth FedExCup crown.

McIlroy has won three FedExCup titles (2016, 2019, 2022), but he has yet to triumph at TPC Southwind. The Irishman came close a year ago, finishing tied for third in Memphis, after missing the cut at the FedEx St. Jude a year prior. (Using the Starting Strokes format, McIlroy trailed Scheffler by six strokes into the 2022 TOUR Championship but rallied to the FedExCup title; McIlroy trailed by three strokes into the 2023 TOUR Championship and finished fourth on the FedExCup.)

Perhaps a friendly game of tennis will push McIlroy to a fourth PGA TOUR season-long crown. While representing Ireland at the men’s Olympic golf competition in Paris earlier this month, McIlroy made some time to attend the tennis portion of the Games, catching a doubles match between Carlos Alcaraz-Rafael Nadal and Rajeev Ram-Austin Krajicek. The experience may have resonated across the pond.

McIlroy will turn from tennis to Friday’s second round at TPC Southwind, eyeing a move up the leaderboard and in the FedExCup. He’s a two-time TOUR winner this season and added a runner-up at the U.S. Open, but how would he classify his 2024 season? Just “pretty good,” he said Wednesday.

As he has done in past Playoffs, he hopes to elevate that descriptor across the next three weeks.

“I think when the bulk of the season has come and gone and you've got this opportunity of three weeks to … flip the script a little bit or change the narrative and what that season means, I think that's a motivating factor,” McIlroy said earlier this week, “and part of the reason that I've probably played well in the Playoffs for the last three years.

“Obviously I've got three tournaments … to try to turn a pretty good year into a very good year.”