The Northern Irish golfer dropped out of contention at the Scottish Open following a disappointing third round on Saturday (11.07.26) and says he has "a bit of work" to do before the final major of the year begins at Royal Birkdale later this week.
McIlroy, who finished in a tie for seventh at The Renaissance Club, said: "I definitely hit it a little better today than I did in round three. I noticed a few things in my game and my iron shots, especially this morning coming out for the back end of the third round.
"I went and tried to work it on the range between rounds. At least I know what the problem is and it's just about fixing it. It's been pretty windy this week, and then when the wind on the range is off the left, I just get into that bad habit of hitting it further left than the path at impact.
"I start hitting left with my iron shots, and I still hit a few out there today but I managed a little bit better and I managed the clubface better and I held a lot of putts. I putted really well today - that was the difference between 73 and 64.
"It's nice to sign this week off with a good score but I know I need to do a bit of work between now and next Thursday to feel really comfortable with my game. I don't feel like it's too far away. There's definitely some positive signs."
McIlroy berated himself for being "so bad at golf" when he bogeyed the 16th hole and explained that he has problems to "rectify" ahead of The Open.
The Masters champion said: "Felt like I was pretty much in control of everything after the first two days and then on the long day yesterday, waiting around, didn't get off to the best of starts.
"Didn't finish the third round off today particularly well, sort of pieced it together, realised what I was doing, tried to figure it out a bit on the range before I went out for my final round.
"At least I know what I'm doing, it's a matter of trying to rectify it. Obviously there was some good in there today but there was some bad as well, so I'm going to need to work a little bit over the next couple of days.
"It was feeling good coming in here (with the irons) and it was good. I hit some really good iron shots over the first couple of days but the more I hit balls in a left-to-right wind, the more that (issue) starts to show itself and then it's a bit of a struggle from there."
