Rory McIlroy has been getting some good practice lately when it comes to verbalizing his career milestones. At the beginning of 2025, McIlroy said there were three things he was most focused on accomplishing for the rest of his career.
– Win the Masters
– Win another Road Rider Cup
– Win a medal at the Olympics
After 9 months, it’s check, check, maybe check in the future. But for those close to the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, there is another class McIlroy is pursuing.
This has been a much longer, quieter pursuit that most golf fans may have missed, but trust me McIlroy doesn’t feel that way about it. He wants to be considered the greatest golfer in European history, and if he’s not there yet, he could inch closer to that title in Dubai next week.
McIlroy leads the race to Dubai with a week to go, but the only players who can realistically stand in his way are Tyrrell Hatton and Marco Penge. Winning the annual title isn’t necessarily special for McIlroy, but it is symbolic of something bigger. This is McIlroy’s seventh career title in the Race to Dubai, formerly known as the Order of Merit, and puts him in second place for his career in that regard. Colin Montgomery leads the pack with eight titles.
McIlroy is scheduled to host a press conference from Jumeirah Golf Estate in the coming days and will no doubt be asked about it. This was his fourth consecutive Race to Dubai title and his first since last year when he tied Seve Ballesteros with six in total, making McIlroy extremely emotional.
“I’m just thinking about what Seve means to the game, to this tour and to the Ryder Cup team in Europe,” McIlroy said. “We’re sitting in the Ryder Cup locker room and the place is filled with Seve quotes everywhere you look. Last year in Italy’s locker room was the shirt he last wore when he played in the Ryder Cup with Oak Hill in 1995.
“I think that was the reason. And then you also added the fact that there were so many close calls this year. It certainly wasn’t easy for me to play on the back nine.”
“I think it was a combination of Seve and finally crossing a line that I had been feeling for a long time that all those emotions hit me. Yeah, so I had to calm myself down.”
It was only after a few minutes that he started to look forward.
“I’ve come this far. Maybe I should aim for eight or nine (titles),” McIlroy said. “We are looking to achieve what no one else in the game has ever achieved, to get six wins in a row and three in a row, prioritize The Race to Dubai and the DP World Tour, and surpass Monty.
“But I think I have a good 10 years left. Again, who knows what the world of golf will be like in a few years’ time? But as long as the Race to Dubai is going on and we have the Order of Merit and we’re on this tour, I would hope for that.”
Fast forward 12 months and McIlroy has as good a chance as ever to do it again, thanks in part to a 62nd Sunday that saw him climb to a T3 finish in Abu Dhabi. Tyrrell Hatton must win next week and will hope McIlroy finishes outside the top eight. The only finish that would guarantee Marco Penzi the top spot would be an outright victory. (And that would require McIlroy to finish somewhere other than solo second.) Otherwise, Penge will need a top-three finish and hope McIlroy doesn’t do what he always does at Jumeirah Golf Estate: win. McIlroy won the year-end tournament in 2012, 2015 and 2024.
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