DUBAI: Rory McIlroy has his sights set on overtaking one of European golf’s greatest players and closing the gap on another as he looks to win the Harry Vardon Trophy for a seventh time this weekend.
The reigning Masters Champion heads into the season-ending DP World Tour Championship with a 767-point lead over nearest challenger Marco Penge in the Race to Dubai standings and in pole position to win the season-long race for a fourth year in a row.
If he achieves his aim on Sunday, the Northern Irishman would become a seven-time Race to Dubai champion, moving past Seve Ballesteros on six (under the previous name of Order of Merit) and closing to within one win of Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight.
With 2,000 points awarded to the winner of the final Rolex Series event of the season at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week, McIlroy knows victory is not a foregone conclusion but he wants to continue moving up a list that contains some illustrious names.
He said: “To move from six to seven titles, to go one past Seve, would be amazing. To get one closer to Monty (Montgomerie) would be amazing.
“But I think when I say I’m not chasing anything, I think if I focus my energy on certain tournaments and try to play well at certain tournaments, then the Race to Dubai almost just sort of takes care of itself.
“Hopefully these season-long awards are something that just come along because you’ve won some big tournaments along the way.
“So yeah, 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.”
McIlroy had led Penge by 441 points ahead of last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship but extended his lead after making an eagle and eight birdies in a flawless 62 on Sunday to finish in a tie for third.
He is hoping to keep up the momentum in Dubai at a tournament he has won three times, including last year.
“Obviously it was a great day on Sunday,” said McIlroy. “It looked like I was probably going to have a similar cushion over Marco to what I had last week but I was able to turn it on on the back nine and make a few birdies and give myself a chance to win the tournament, but also a little bit more of a lead going in here.
“So I thought last week was overall pretty good. I certainly played really well on the weekend. Found myself in a familiar position going into this week, going out last on Thursday, and you know, it will be good to tee it up again alongside Marco. I’m excited for a great week.
“I feel like my game rounded into some really good form at the weekend, and hopefully I can continue that from Thursday on.”
The World No. 2 was speaking on the day that the DP World Tour announced the inauguration of the Rory McIlroy Award, a new annual trophy named in honor of Europe’s first winner of the Career Grand Slam.
The award will be presented to the individual member of the DP World Tour who performs the best across all four Major Championships in a season.
McIlroy becomes the fifth person to have a DP World Tour award named after them, and said: “It’s an amazing honor to have my name up there along with Harry Vardon, Sir Henry Cotton, Seve Ballesteros and John Jacobs, that’s very special.”
