PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — Rory McIlroy isn’t just a professional golfer. He’s also a professional wrestler.

At the moment, the world’s No. 1 ranked player is in the throes of a wrestling match of sorts. He’s trying to determine whether top-five finishes in his past seven tournaments is more of a positive than winning only two of those events is a negative.

There isn’t a more transparent and introspective player in golf who seemingly says and does all the right things than McIlroy, the 30-year-old Northern Irishman.

Because of that, when McIlroy was asked about a year ago why he doesn’t win more often, and he said he’s made a concerted effort to concentrate more on the process than the results, you could not help but listen despite the fact that phrases like that always sounds like the parroting of sports-psychologist babble.

You wonder how long McIlroy can follow that mantra while he falls short of winning tournaments he should be winning — like last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he shot a final-round 76 on Sunday and last month’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera, where he held a share of the lead entering the final round and limped home with a 73.

“I don’t think you can ever go into result mode,’’ McIlroy said Tuesday as he prepared to defend his Players Championship title this week at TPC Sawgrass. “I don’t think that works. I don’t think that helps anything. I think you just have to keep going about your business, doing your thing. I think the only way to not win is to concentrate on the results.

“So, if I can just concentrate on what I’m doing and what I’m doing well, what I maybe need to improve on a little bit, just break the game down into different sections [and] try to make it as simple as possible, if I can do a few different things in my golf game just a little bit better, those thirds and fifths will hopefully turn into wins.

“I’ve had some really good success following this path that I’m on, and I’m just really trying to focus on doing the little things right. If I keep doing those, then the byproduct is winning. I definitely don’t feel like I’m too far away.’’

It’s difficult to argue with McIlroy — even though you sometimes get the feeling he’s leaving too many trophies on other players’ shelves these days.

“I think you definitely have to look at it as a positive,’’ Justin Thomas said of McIlroy’s run of top fives despite not as many wins as he’d like. “When you’re as talented as Rory is, and you keep putting yourself there, it’s going to happen eventually. And he has the capability to do what he’s done a couple times where he might win four events in six weeks or win a couple in a row.

“I know he knows that, I know we all know that, and he’s playing some unbelievable golf. I respect Rory as much as I like him. I just respect what he does because he works really hard. He takes it extremely seriously.’’

Jim Furyk, who has 188 top-10 finishes in his career, concurred with Thomas.

“As players, we all get frustrated by that — getting close and not getting over the hump,’’ Furyk said. “It’s frustrating for everyone. He puts himself in that position quite often, and that’s because — if he’s not the most talented player in the world, he’s definitely one of the top five. Those kind of things comes in bunches. I wouldn’t be surprised if later this year he rips off three or four wins real quick.

“If it were happening to me, I’d be frustrated, and I’d be pushing, and I’d be trying a little too hard, and I would be working hard at home, and I’m sure he’s doing all those things. The way I look at it is the guy is super talented, and it’s just a matter of time. He’s going to keep knocking on the door, and then when the floodgates open, look out. We’re all going to be in trouble there for a little while.’’