Rory McIlroy can not top the Race to Dubai this week, but he’s still focussed on winning the DP World Tour Championship, taking home the $3m first prize cheque and chasing down Brooks Koepka at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking.
Heading into the tournament in sixth place in the season-long race, McIlroy insists he has no regrets about his decision to give up his European Tour membership earlier this year as he forgoed potential Race to Dubai points earned at three of the biggest events of the season.
Climbed inside the top ten
His results in the two WGC events in March and the Masters in April do not count towards his 2019 Race to Dubai tally, but since he rejoined the Tour in May he has earned points and climbed up inside the top ten.
Sitting Comfortable
If those early results were added to his total he would be sitting comfortably in third place narrowly behind Tommy Fleetwood, needing a victory in this week’s final event to claim the season-long race for the fourth time in seven years.
“I’ve won the race three times before and it’s a wonderful feeling, but you look at someone like the leader Bernd Wiesberger, who’s played so much more – maybe 25, 26 times this year, he is the type of guy who deserves to be up there with a chance to win,” said McIlroy.
“It wasn’t even on my radar until I won in China three weeks ago. Now I have one tournament left and it’s an important title which is enough reason on its own to be at this event.” – Rory McIlroy
A victory at Jumeirah Golf Estates would lift McIlroy inside the top five, meaning he would take a share of the $5m bonus pool and he is confident of another good performance on a course he knows very well having won the DP World Tour Championship twice in 2012 and 2015.
“With the way I’ve been playing over the last few months, if I go out and do my thing, then hopefully, I’ll give myself another chance of wining a title,” he said. “I feel I could play this place blindfolded. I’ve been coming here for ten years – I know the place like the back of my hand.”
