The world number two carded rounds of 74, 70, 72 and 72 to finish the tournament eight over par and 66th in the 68-man field.
McIlroy, who had not played since last month’s Open Championship, admitted he is “so far away from where I need to be” heading into next week’s second FedExCup playoff event, the BMW Championship.
“Obviously didn’t come in here with a ton of reps, (it) almost felt like the more the week went on the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit,” said the Northern Irishman.
“The swing wasn’t in sync and obviously I didn’t do a ton of practice coming in here.
“I’m so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I’ve just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit.
“I guess nice to shake the rust off a little bit but I’m going to have to work pretty hard between now and next Thursday to feel like I have any sort of golf game to compete next week.
“To me it’s more about obviously the execution of what I’m doing right now, and the execution wasn’t there this week.
“I’m going to have to sort of put the head down and grind from now until Thursday to try to feel like I have any sort of chance next week.”
Regardless of results, McIlroy is assured of making it to the 30-man season-ending Tour Championship as he looks to win an unprecedented fourth FedExCup and his first since 2022.
