WASHINGTON (AFP) — Rory McIlroy is gearing up for a golf marathon as he targets a fourth US PGA Tour FedEx Cup crown, starting with the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee, this week.

“I almost try to view the playoffs as one big, long tournament, like a 12-round event,” McIlroy told reporters Wednesday as he prepared to tee it up at TPC Southwind after skipping the first playoff event last year.

“You’ve got to pace yourself,” he added.

“It’s three long weeks. We’re going from here to St. Louis to Atlanta. I’ve tried to treat it like one big long golf tournament and sort of get into the rhythm of it and go from there.”

“I’ve been lucky enough to do pretty well on these things over the years. So, try to add another one to the list.”

McIlroy is 12th in the playoff standings and assured of playing the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, where the field is winnowed to the top 30 on the list.

He was ranked second in the playoff standings at this time last year when he opted out of the opening event and said “a few different things” went into making a different decision this year.

“I think having four weeks off going into the last two events of the year was probably going to be a little too much for me in terms of wanting to be competitive,” he said.

“I think it’s important to be here,” he added. “It’s the Tour’s playoffs, and I think it’s important for all the players to be here.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler tops the FedEx Cup standings and will be looking for a hot start in Memphis, where has finished in the top five in his past two starts.

“I have three tournaments, three good starts to kind of end the year. Definitely excited to get this week going,” Scheffler said.

He will tee off on Thursday alongside McIlroy, who hasn’t played since he finished with a share of 40th in the British Open at Royal Birkdale in July.

In fact, since winning a second straight Masters title in April, McIlroy has played just six PGA Tour events to take his total to 11 for the year.

He is projected to come up one start short of the 15 US PGA events required to maintain his dual PGA Tour and DP World Tour membership.

McIlroy said he was confident he would reach an agreement to maintain his membership without cramming another PGA Tour stop into a late-season schedule that includes half a dozen global events.

He said he had had “productive” talks with PGA Tour commissioner Brian Rolapp on the matter.

“I think we’ve built up a really good relationship and we’ve had a couple of conversations last week about what I can do with the tour going forward to fulfill the obligation to keep my membership,” he said.