The four-time Major Championship winner sustained a rib injury testing equipment over the winter and aggravated it while losing a play-off to Graeme Storm at the BMW SA Open hosted by City of Ekurhuleni.
He returned to action and enjoyed top tens at the WGC-Mexico Championship and Masters Tournament but was injured again at the Players Championship on the US PGA Tour and is making his first appearance since mid-May.
McIlroy’s promising return from injury earlier in the campaign means he arrives in Wisconsin with no trepidation and is certain he is physically capable of winning the title he claimed in such spectacular style in 2011.
“No limitations on my swing whatsoever,” he said. “Preparation-wise, instead of hitting five bags of balls, I’ll hit two, just something like that. It’s not as if I can’t hit balls, it’s just a matter of managing how many repetitions I put through it. I mean not really many limitations.
“It’s at the point in the year, as well, you don’t need to be practising that much. You want to go out and play. I feel like you figure stuff out on the golf course more than on the range sometimes anyway and it’s let me concentrate a bit more on my short game.
“Obviously I haven’t had many tournament rounds under my belt. But at the same time I’m coming in fresh to this part of the season.
“I think it’s all in the preparation. And if you prepare and you feel like your game’s right where it needs to be, it allows you to play with that confidence and that little bit more freedom. And I feel like I’ve sort of reached that point again.
“I don’t feel like I need a run of events to get back into it. I feel like I can pick up confidence pretty quickly.”
Much of the talk coming into this week has been of the highly punitive rough, with the USGA actually deciding to cut some of it back on Tuesday, but McIlroy believes the fairways are easily wide enough for the world’s best and he will not be scared to get out the driver this week.
“We have 60 yards from left line to right line,” he said. “You’ve got 156 of the best players in the world here, if we can’t hit it within that avenue, you might as well pack your bags and go home. These are the widest fairways we’ve ever played in a US Open.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that I feel like my driver is one of my biggest weapons in my bag. If I can get that in my hands more regularly, and I think if the field has to hit driver more, that plays into my hands, too.
“I wasn’t crying when I saw that rain last night and this morning. It’s a long golf course and it’s only going to play longer. That benefits a few guys and luckily I’m one of them.”