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Rory McIlroy believes spending three days in London as a tourist has helped prepare him mentally for his bid to win a second US Open title this week at Chambers Bay.
The world No 1 goes into the second major of 2015 off the back of two consecutive missed cuts at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship and at the Irish Open.
Despite his dip in form after winning two of his previous four tournaments, the 26-year-old appears relaxed in Washington after a low-key build-up to the tournament.
McIlroy is looking for a fifth major after claiming his first in the same event at Congressional in Maryland four years ago.
He said: "I had commitments with Nike on the Monday after (the Irish Open). I did some biomechanical testing on the Tuesday.
“My trainer Steve (McGregor) was over on Wednesday so we did a couple of sessions and then I went to London on Thursday for a few days.
“I was a tourist for three days, went to the London Eye, did a lot of walking, which I didn't know was a great preparation for this place. I think I walked about 10 miles a day so that helped.
“That got me in the right frame of mind. I obviously didn't want to miss those two cuts in Europe, but I think that's just the way I'm going to be.
“I'd rather in a six-tournament period have three wins and three missed cuts than six top-10s. Volatility in golf is actually a good thing. If your good weeks are really good, it far outweighs the bad weeks.”
Perhaps ominously for McIlroy is the fact he has compared the hard and fast conditions at Chambers Bay with Muirfield when it served as the venue for the Open in 2013.
Back then, the Northern Irishman missed the cut at a time when he was struggling to adapt to new clubs following his switch to Nike but is confident of performing better this week.
He added: “I'm a completely different player. I'm in a completely different place. I had no control of my golf game at that point in time and I feel like I'm pretty much in full control of it at the minute.
"I can tell you a repeat of that is definitely not going to happen. Chambers Bay plays more like a links course than some links courses. It's so fast, so firm.
“It reminds me of 2013 at Muirfield and '06 at Hoylake when Tiger (Woods) won. The course is getting burned out.”
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