RORY McILROY admits he is frustrated at failing to turn good performances into wins this season as he looks to claim one of the few big titles so far missing from his glittering cv in the Players Championship.

As well as winning four major titles and playing on three successive victorious Ryder Cup teams, McIlroy has won two World Golf Championship events and two FedEx Cup play-off tournaments, meaning the so-called 'Fifth Major' is high on the agenda.

McIlroy has finished eighth, sixth and eighth in the last three years at Sawgrass, but similar statistics so far in 2016 mean the 27-year-old is the only member of the world's top five without a victory this season.

"Results-wise it isn't what I hoped for," McIlroy told a pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday. "My performances have been pretty good, I've had a few chances to win tournaments. Of the nine events I've played so far I think I have six top-10s so it hasn't been too bad, but there's no wins in there.

"It's been frustrating and especially because I feel like I've played some really good golf in this stretch, but at the same time there's just been too many mistakes.

"Again last week I led the field in birdies at Quail Hollow, I was up there at Augusta. There's just been too many loose shots, too many soft bogeys, so if anything I just need to tidy that up because I know I'm playing good enough to make the birdies and to post a lot of red (under par) numbers, but I just need to tidy up everything else."

Despite those frustrations, McIlroy remains confident in his ability to "close" out tournaments down the stretch, reiterating that he learnt the most from his collapse in the 2011 Masters.

McIlroy, who was four shots clear heading into the final round at Augusta before slumping to a closing 80, added: "I don't think I believed I was a good closer until 2012.

"My wins early on in my career I led by a lot; whether it was my first win in Dubai, I think I was six ahead with six to play and sort of fell over the line there. When I won at Quail Hollow in 2010 I was five behind at the start of the day and I ended up winning by four. I just got on a great run, I didn't actually have to play with the lead for any length of time. US Open was sort of similar in 2011.

"At the start of '12, whenever I needed to hold on on the back nine at the Honda Classic.... Tiger (Woods) had shot 62, I was trying to get in the clubhouse and become world number one for the first time, that's when I really believed I've finally been able to close a tournament out and be able to play the right shot at the right time and keep it together.

"It takes experience, it takes losing a few first I think before understanding what you need to do. I've always said the biggest learning curve and day of my career was that Sunday at Augusta in '11.

"At least I know now exactly what not to do and what doesn't work for me so when I go into these final rounds and situations where I have a chance to win, I know how to handle myself, what way to think.

"I think that's the big thing, the mentality of learning what's going to be a good score that day, what's going to be the number that's going to win and really try and forget about everything else and try to get to that number."

Jordan Spieth believes he has put his dramatic Masters collapse behind him, but is working hard on his swing to avoid suffering a similar fate in future pressure situations.

Defending champion Spieth held a five-shot lead with nine holes to play at Augusta National in April, only to bogey the 10th and 11th and then take a quadruple-bogey seven on the 12th, where he hit two balls into the water.

The world number two has not played competitively since, but returns to action in this week's Players Championship at Sawgrass, the so-called "fifth major" which also features a famous par-three - the 17th - which is surrounded by water.

"I said throughout the week [at Augusta] that I was not striking the ball very well," Spieth told a pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday. "My miss, given where my club was positioned, was short and right and that's okay at Augusta on almost every other hole. On 12 and 13 it doesn't really work well.

"I was picking the right shot [on the 12th], maybe just hit it a little thin off the heel, maybe lifted up a little early. That kind of mistake could have happened any other day, it wasn't like the moment was what caused it because I'd been in that moment many times already and succeeded, and had failures. Both are going to come.

"It was the wrong miss so what do we do? We go to the drawing board and figure out how to get my swing to the consistent level it was at during the second half of last year.

"From the US Open, John Deere [Classic], Open Championship and through into the US PGA my swing was exactly where we wanted it and so we've been working hard to try to get to that position.

"It got off whenever and I haven't really been able to trust it at that level since then. But I put in a lot of good hard work on the driving range and it's there right now, it's just a matter of being able to trust it on the golf course with trouble around, which may not happen right away, but it's getting closer."