Tour Championship 2019: Power ranking the top ten FedEx Cup favorites

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ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 25: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland poses with the FedExCup and TOUR Championship trophies after his victory over Ryan Moore with a birdie on the fourth extra hole during the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on September 25, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

The knock on Rory is he tends to get off to slow starts, only to unleash his talent to start a comeback that often falls short. Maybe putting him at an immediate disadvantage will light a fire under him on Thursday.

He’s got five shots to make up on Justin Thomas right off the bat. Fortunately, East Lake has been welcome to McIlroy.

He was the FedEx Cup and Tour Championship winner in 2016. McIlroy also finished T-2 here in 2014, has four top-10s and has finished T-16 or better in all five starts.

The Northern Irishman is second on the PGA Tour in driving distance but is 111th in fairway accuracy. He may have to scale back a little to get around East Lake.

"“You’ve got to hit it in the fairway,” McIlroy said in 2018. “Just the holes that I struggled on today are the holes where I missed the fairway. Put your ball in play, make life a lot easier for yourself.”"

He also ranks 25th in strokes gained putting.

McIlroy is a two-time winner this year at the Players Championship and Canadian Open. His last three starts yielded a T-4 at the WGC in Memphis, T-6 at the Northern Trust and T-19 last week.

Statistically, McIlroy didn’t do anything too poorly or too spectacularly en route to rounds of 69-67-70-71.

I think he’ll ramp back up this week on a wet course and contend for the title.

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