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"Neutral."

That was the one word Rory McIlroy used to describe his 2016 season entering the PGA Championship. It's a fair descriptor as he's been held winless on the PGA Tour with one win worldwide at his own event, the Irish Open.

McIlroy said, if he had to grade his season, he'd give it a "B-minus or B," though he admitted that a win at Baltusrol Golf Club this week could turn it into an A-plus.

"I feel there's been times where I got a little bit of momentum and then sort of got set back a little bit," said McIlroy. "It's sort of been a little stop-start in a way. But it's hard. It's hard to, like, not stay positive; I'm trying to stay as positive as I can. I feel like I am positive because my game is in good shape. But I guess [I'm] just maybe running out of patience a little bit and trying to make it happen."

The PGA Championship has long been the major at which McIlroy has excelled with two victories in 2012 and 2014 and three other top 10 finishes in the season's final major. A win on Sunday would give him his third Wanamaker Trophy in the last five years, which would make him the first player to win three of the same major in that span since Tiger Woods captured the Masters in 2001, 2002 and 2005.

McIlroy knows major championships are how he's going to be judged at this point of his career. Majors are how he judges himself, after all. He expects, even with the depth and quality of the PGA Tour now, that he should be winning at least one major each year.

"If you can win one of the four every year; if you're that good, you can do that. I think it is realistic. I think that is achievable. We've seen in the past that is achievable. That's the benchmark. That's what you're trying to get to. It's hard. It's so deep [on the PGA Tour] but I guess '11, '12, '13, '14, in that stretch of four years, I averaged a major a year," he said.

"So there's no reason to think that I can't do that for the foreseeable future. Obviously that's what my benchmark is, and I feel like I can attain that. I have to play my best golf and sometimes it's hard to come up with your best golf each and every week. But I definitely think it's attainable."

The motivation for McIlroy this week isn't just the chance at history or attaining his own personal goals. It's also seeing what others are doing, most recently Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson at The Open Championship two weeks ago.

"I think any time you walk away from a big tournament and you haven't lifted a trophy, it's going to motivate you, especially when you see the guys winning. How can you not be motivated by watching that golf on the Sunday of The Open Championship with Phil and Henrik? Just going blow for blow down the stretch, that can only give you motivation and get the juices flowing. So yeah, of course, you see guys and sometimes you think that should be me and it gives you a bit of a kick in the ass to get out there and go practice," he said.

So far, 2016 has been the year of the first-time major winner with Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson all joining the club. McIlroy hopes to put an end to that at Baltusrol and add a fifth career major title to his collection.

As he noted on Tuesday, his game is in good form after a T5 finish at The Open, and he feels like this golf course suits his game -- PGA Championship courses and set ups have long seemed to work for McIlroy.

A win this week would change the conversation about McIlroy's season that has been solid, but as he noted, is lacking the signature win that he prides himself on each year.

If he walks off of the 18th green on Sunday as champion, his season would be a success but, on a greater level, history would be made and he would vault himself to another level.