The Northern Irish golfer competed in his 22nd event of the year at the Tour Championship last weekend and revealed that he will play in fewer events next year after feeling that he "hit a wall" following his near-miss at the US Open in June.

McIlroy said: "It’s been a long season.

"I’m going to just have to think about trying to build in a few extra breaks here and there next year and going forward because I felt like I hit a bit of a wall sort of post-US Open, and still feel a little bit of that hangover.

"27 [is too many tournaments]. I’m usually sort of like a 22 sort of person. But again, that was when I was sort of in my 20s and didn’t have the responsibilities that I do now.

"I’m going to try to cut it back to like 18 or 20 a year going forward, I think."

McIlroy still has five more events left to play this year and explained that the addition of the Olympic competition has made his schedule even more hectic this summer.

The world number three said: "My season is not over, obviously. I’ve still got five events left to play.

"But yeah, it’s been, I feel like the tournaments came thick and fast, and obviously with the Olympics thrown in there, as well, this year, it sort of condensed everything a bit."