Rory McIlroy has made good practice lately of speaking his career milestones into existence. At the outset of 2025, McIlroy said there were three things he was most focused on achieving with the rest of his career:
– win the Masters
– win another road Ryder Cup
– win an Olympic medal
Nine months later, that’s check, check, maybe future check. But for those closest to the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, there is another echelon McIlroy is in pursuit of.
It’s a much longer, quieter pursuit that most golf fans might miss, but trust that McIlroy doesn’t feel that way about it. He wants to be considered the greatest European golfer of all-time, and if he isn’t there quite yet, he’ll be able to inch even closer to that title this coming week in Dubai.
McIlroy leads the Race to Dubai with one week to go, and only Tyrrell Hatton and Marco Penge have a realistic shot of getting in his way. Claiming the year-long title isn’t necessarily special for McIlroy, but it’s representative of something greater. It would be his seventh career Race to Dubai title, the award formerly known as the Order of Merit, and McIlroy is in second place for career marks in that regard. Colin Montgomerie is in first with eight titles.
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In the coming days, McIlroy will host a press conference from the Jumeirah Golf Estates and will no doubt be asked about it. It would be his fourth-straight Race to Dubai title and first since last year, when he tied Seve Ballesteros for six total, which made McIlroy quite emotional.
“I just think about what Seve meant to the game, to this tour, to the European Ryder Cup Team,” McIlroy said. “We sit in the locker room at the Ryder Cup, and the place is just filled with Seve quotes, every wall you look at. We had a changing room last year in Italy with the last shirt he ever wore when he played the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill in ’95.
“I think it was that, and then combined with the fact that I’ve had so many close calls this year. Certainly didn’t make it easy for myself, either, out there on the back nine.
“I think just the combination of the Seve thing plus finally getting over the line in what’s felt like a long time, I think the emotion of it all just sort of hit me. Yeah, that’s why I had to compose myself.”
It was only a few minutes later that he started looking forward.
“I’ve come this far, I might as well try and get to eight or nine [titles],” McIlroy said. “Getting to six and three in a row, and prioritizing The Race to Dubai and DP World Tour and trying to achieve something that no one else in the game has achieved if I am to surpass Monty.
“But I’ve got a good 10 years left, I think. Look, again, the other thing is, who knows what the world of golf looks like in a few years’ time. But as long as The Race to Dubai is happening and there’s an Order of Merit and we’re on this tour, I’m going to want it, yeah.”
Fast-forward 12 months and McIlroy has as good a chance as ever to get it done again, thanks in part to his 62 Sunday, rising to a T3 finish in Abu Dhabi. Tyrrell Hatton would have to win this coming week and hope that McIlroy finishes outside the top eight. The only finish that guarantees Marco Penge the top spot would be winning outright. (And it would require that McIlroy finishes outside of solo second.) Otherwise, Penge will need a top three finish and pray that McIlroy doesn’t do what he normally does at Jumeirah Golf Estates: win. McIlroy won the year-end tournament in 2012, 2015 and 2024.
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