Rory McIlroy says he feels a “responsibility” to prioritise the DP World Tour in a “fractured” men’s game and believes stepping away from the sport’s politics has improved his life on and off the course.
McIlroy arrives at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship with a commanding lead atop the standings, closing in on a seventh Race to Dubai title and a fourth in as many years. The 36-year-old previously won the PGA Tour’s FedExCup three times between his third Race to Dubai title in 2015 and his fourth in 2022, and has enjoyed regular success on the DP World Tour as he aims to move closer to Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Order of Merits.
“There’s a wonderful heritage to this [DP World] tour,” McIlroy said ahead of the championship. “I think with the fractured nature of the men’s professional game at the minute, this tour needs all of its stars to step up and play in the big events. I understand that I am one of those people and I want to do my utmost to help in whatever way that I can. I feel quite a responsibility to do that and to try to make this tour as strong as it can possibly be.”
He added that he enjoys the tour, the people who play on it and those who work there. “We’ve shared a lot great moments from Ryder Cups together and great times and it just feels a lot more like home.”
McIlroy ended an 11-year wait for a fifth major and completed the career Grand Slam with his Masters victory in April, an achievement the DP World Tour has since recognised by naming an award after him. He also won the Amgen Irish Open, was part of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team, and claimed two PGA Tour wins during a memorable campaign.
On his mindset, McIlroy said: “It [desire] is certainly not gone, but I think it’s just going one of those things where I’m not going to have to pick and choose where to sort of place my desire and what I want my goals to be. I’m certainly not less driven, but maybe just more driven in focused areas. I don’t feel like chasing as much anymore. I’m not out chasing the Grand Slam. I’m not chasing these things. I’m very content with what I’ve done in the game. I’m still driven to do more but you know, it’s sort of a pinpoint to drive in certain directions.”
He emphasised the benefit of stepping away from behind-the-scenes discussions: “I have a clear head and I’m out of all the political stuff in golf, basically, and I can just focus on playing and playing where I want to and making myself competitively happy by playing in the tournaments that I want to play. Then having more time to make myself personally happy with doing the things I want to do away from golf, travelling with my family and showing my daughter different parts of the world and doing things like that is a very nice place to be in life.”
McIlroy enters the season finale with a 767-point advantage over Marco Penge and a 1,720-point cushion over Tyrrell Hatton in the Race to Dubai rankings; those two are the only players who could still overtake him as European No 1. “To move from six to seven [order of merits], to go one past Seve [Ballesteros] would be amazing,” he said. “To get one closer to Monty [Colin Montgomerie] would be amazing.”
He added that focusing energy on specific tournaments often means season-long awards “almost sort of take care of themselves.” “Hopefully these season-long awards are something that just come along because you’ve won some big tournaments along the way. I guess you could say I’m still chasing that, but I think that’s just more a by-product of playing the good golf that I know that I can.”
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