DUBLIN, Ohio — Rory McIlroy is playing more golf than he planned going into his title defense at the U.S. Open.

Just not on the right days.

McIlroy lost his No. 1 ranking — and briefly lost his composure — by missing consecutive cuts at two big tournaments at The Players Championship and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, where frustrations boiled over to the point that he tossed a 6-iron after an errant shot.

If nothing else, it was a wake-up call for McIlroy.

“When you’ve went on a run when you’ve hardly finished outside the top five, and then all of a sudden two missed cuts, it’s more of a shock than anything else,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Just a little bit surprising, and it’s something I haven’t really had to deal with in a while, and I just have to knuckle down and figure it out and get back to the way I was at the start of the year.”

He can only hope the Memorial is the start of another big run.

Most of the game’s best players are at Muirfield Village, a popular spot because Jack Nicklaus is the tournament host and a good location on the schedule with the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club only two weeks away.

It’s the strongest field of a regular PGA Tour event this year, featuring many of the world’s top golfers.