The engraving has already begun on Rory McIlroy’s Race to Dubai trophy.
With just one round left in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, McIlroy finds himself in a three-way tie for the lead and with the only player who can catch him in the season-long points race, Thriston Lawrence, eight shots back.
Yet, that didn’t mean McIlroy cared little about how he finished Saturday at Jumeirah Golf Estates, where he played his final six holes in even par with no birdies, including on two par-5s.
“A little disappointed how I played those last five holes,” said McIlroy, who still managed 4-under 68 to push to 12 under alongside Rasmus Hojgaard and Antoine Rozner.
McIlroy’s level finish started at the par-3 13th hole, where he burned the edge from 12 feet. He then had to lay up to 136 yards at the par-5 14th, where he also missed a 20-footer for birdie, and he failed to get up and down from 24 yards for birdie at the drivable par-4 15th.
The par-5 finishing hole irked McIlroy the most. He had a 6-iron in his hand from just 187 yards out but fanned it right into a greenside bunker and could then only blast out to 11 feet.
“I was ready to hit, and then it just seemed like the group in front weren’t really hurrying to get off the back of green and felt like I had to wait an extra two or three minutes for that,” McIlroy said. “So let that affect me a little bit and I came out of the 6-iron. It’s hard. That’s always a hard bunker shot going towards the water there. Left myself in a good spot and hit a good putt. Just a little too firm on that one.”
Still, McIlroy is confident in his chances of winning the Dubai double (DP World Tour Championship and Race to Dubai titles) for the third time. In his two past victories at the DP World Tour Championship, McIlroy also won the Race to Dubai. He’s trying to win his third straight – and sixth overall – Race to Dubai.
“Tied for the lead, you know, going out on a golf course that I really like and that I’ve had success on before,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, look, it’s a great opportunity to end the year on a really high note. Going to go out there tomorrow and give it everything I can and hopefully things fall my way and I’m able to stand on that 18th green with both trophies.”
Rozner might have the most to gain on Sunday.
Currently, the 31-year-old Frenchman is No. 15 in the DPWT’s PGA Tour Eligibility rankings, which after this week will earn the top 10 players PGA Tour membership. However, a win projects to bump Rozner to second in that race.
“To be honest, I don’t know what to tell you right now because I’m going to try to focus on tomorrow and tomorrow only,” Rozner said. “Put a good score, and that’s the only thing that’s going to matter now for me. I have to come out with the right mindset, and yeah, do the best I can, and we’ll see how it goes in the end.”
Lawrence and Hojgaard entered the week as the top two players in that ranking, followed by Paul Waring, Niklas Norgaard, Matteo Manassero, Jesper Svensson, Thorbjorn Olesen, Rikuya Hoshino, Sebastian Soderberg and Jordan Smith.
No. 11 Tom McKibbin, the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland who grew up playing at McIlroy’s home club of Holywood (McKibbin’s nickname growing up was “Lil’ Rory”), fired 67 on Saturday to move into a tie for seventh, which projects to move him to seventh in the PGA Tour Eligibity rankings. That would leave Soderberg as the first man out right now.
“I knew coming into these last two events that I would have to play really well to get one because the points are so stacked. There’s a lot of points available. It’s so easy for people to jump all over the place,” McKibbin said. “So I think I was focusing on these two events, big events, and trying to do the best I could.”
