Rory McIlroy suggested he would play a heavy schedule in early 2018 in an attempt to be fully ready for the Masters in April.
And he is sticking to the plan, based on the seven-event run he announced Friday that includes two European Tour events in the Middle East followed by five on the PGA Tour.
Interestingly, McIlroy is not scheduled to play in either of the World Golf Championship events -- the Mexico Championship and the Dell Technologies Match Play Championship. He could add those tournaments at a later date.
The four-time major winner from Northern Ireland saw his world ranking fall from No. 2 to No. 10 this year as he battled a rib injury that kept him out for two lengthy periods and caused him to shut down his playing schedule in September.
According to his website, McIlroy will begin 2018 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (Jan. 18-21) followed by the Omega Dubai Desert Classic (Jan. 25-28).
Then he heads to the United States for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Feb. 8-11), the Genesis Open (Feb. 15-18), the Honda Classic (Feb. 22-25), the Valspar Championship (March 8-11) and the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 15-18).
Pebble Beach, Genesis and Honda are in consecutive weeks, and McIlroy has a home near the Honda tournament in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. If the current schedule holds, McIlroy would skip the WGC Mexico event, then play the Valspar and Arnold Palmer events in consecutive weeks. The WGC Match Play follows the Palmer tournament.
That schedule would give McIlroy seven events and then give him two full weeks off prior to the Masters, the one major he needs to complete the career Grand Slam.
McIlroy failed to win in 2017 but had seven top-10 finishes.