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He said it himself, but Rory McIlroy’s performance at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship pretty much summed up his entire 2017 season.

The four-time major winner was one of only eight players who failed to break par in the final round on the Old Course – signing for a level par 72 – and, ahead of his extended three-month break from golf, he came away from St Andrews feeling disappointed at his week’s work.

“Not much happening, good or bad,” said McIlroy. “Just sort of stuck in neutral. It hasn’t been the year I wanted on the golf course.

“I started it with ambitions of trying to add to my major tally, win golf tournaments and get back up near the top of the world rankings and obviously I’ve not been able to do that.”

However, the 28-year-old – who celebrating ten years as a professional last month – is determined to look ahead and believes what he does in his three months away from golf can help shape his 2018 season.

“I feel like I can still salvage something from the rest of the year,” he added. “Even though I’m not playing, I’ve given myself a lot of opportunities to put good foundations in place going forward. That’s what I’m going to concentrate on from now until the end of the year.

“I think there’s a lot of areas of my game that need sharpening: Wedge play, putting would be the two main areas. I feel like my iron play sort of came on the last few weeks. Basically all areas of my game could get a little bit better.

“But that’s a few weeks away. I won’t start hitting balls until the end of November, so really the next few weeks is just in the gym and rehab and getting my body right to be able to go into that practice and be able to start 2018 strongly.”