Rory McIlroy has confirmed that he won't be playing next month's Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
The rearranged tournament comes a week after the US Open at Winged Foot in the weekend left vacant by the postponed Ryder Cup.
It's been moved from Mount Juliet to Galgorm Castle in Antrim to stay in the European Tour's 'UK swing'.
McIlroy had been among the confirmed participants for Kilkenny back in the original date in May, but he's decided against leaving the United States for now.
Preparing for this week's Northern Trust, the world no.3 said, "I don't see myself travelling internationally for a while.
"It might be different if there could be fans there and stuff, but it's behind closed doors and it's not an Irish Open like we're used to it being the last few years with obviously big prize funds and everything.
"But not even that, just the fact that I just want to spend time at home and not travel too much the next few months."
McIlroy goes into this weekend's tournament in Boston 8th in the FedEx Cup rankings.
However, he's failed to register a single top 10 finish since the PGA Tour's resumption in June.
McIlroy's won at TPC Boston in 2012 and 2016, and feels a good week could propel him back into FedEx contention.
"It's nice to be up there even though I haven't had the best few weeks coming back from lockdown," the County Down man said.
"I'm still, you know, right in there. I'm in the top-10 and feel like if I can get something going here over the next few weeks, I've got a great chance going into East Lake.
"This is usually a time of year where I've historically played pretty well. Boston's a place and a golf course where I've got some nice history, so hopefully that can ignite something for me this week and I can get on a good little run of golf coming up."
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