At a news conference, McIlroy was congratulated for finishing third. He shrugged his shoulders, grinned and offered a sheepish “thanks.”
Asked if he felt there were any surprises in the top 10 money winners, McIlroy, who has been friendly with Woods for several years, answered: “Not really. I mean, you look at the 10 guys that are on there, and they’re the 10 guys that have been at the top of the game or have been around the top of the game for a long time. I feel like it’s a pretty self-explanatory system. That’s how the numbers sort of rolled out.”
He added: “But it’s certainly not something that I’m checking up on every week to see where I’m at.”
McIlroy, who has increasingly become a forthright voice in golf, has been strident in his criticism of Mickelson’s comments on the alternative Saudi-backed league last month, but on Wednesday he sounded conciliatory.
“Look, we all make mistakes,” he said of Mickelson. “We all say things we want to take back. No one is different in that regard. But we should be allowed to make mistakes, and we should be allowed to ask for forgiveness and for people to forgive us and move on. Hopefully, he comes back at some stage, and he will, and people will welcome him back and be glad that he is back.”