Hurricane Irene delays McIlroy's trip from New York to European Masters

Rory McIlroy expects to be in Switzerland for the Omega European Masters Tuesday afternoon after being delayed leaving New York by Hurricane Irene.

McIlroy was in America visiting new girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki before she tries to emulate him by becoming U.S. Open champion. The Northern Irishman has also been having treatment on the arm he hurt hitting a tree root during the PGA Championship.

"Looking back on it now it was a stupid shot to play," he said on his website. "Now the wrist is totally fine, but when I've been practicing I've experienced a little bit of soreness on the outside of the elbow.

"I haven't hit balls since Friday, so it'll be nice to have a good practice in Switzerland tomorrow when I eventually get there."

Europe’s qualifying for the 2012 Ryder Cup starts this week and McIlroy is playing the first two counting events in Europe, moving on from the Omega European Masters to the KLM Open in the Netherlands.

"It'll be good to be back in competition with Lee (Westwood) and Martin Kaymer for the two weeks,” he added. "It'd be great if we all could play well and I'll have a chance to improve my world ranking position, which has gone down to sixth after the USPGA.

"I think if I win I can get back up to third, so that's a nice little goal for me -- and also I'd like to get a little bit closer to the top two (Luke Donald and Westwood)," he said.