All to play for in Euro finale
McIlroy got away with missing out on the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament at the weekend and, if anything, now looks a better bet than ever to complete the order of merit double on both sides of the Atlantic.
He stands 765,776 points ahead of second-placed Peter Hanson on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai order of merit with the Swede and the third and fourth-placed Justin Rose and Ian Poulter all missing both Singapore and Hong Kong.
This will be Pádraig Harrington’s first appearance since his fine victory in the Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda last month. Over the next three weeks, he hopes to reproduce that form and earn enough points to climb from his current position of 61st in the world rankings and back into the top 50.
Shane Lowry, now 21st in Europe with €954,310, improved a spot in the world rankings to 56th and so remains within touching distance of a place in the top 50 that would open countless doors for him in 2013, most notably a first Masters appearance at Augusta in April. However, he must be concerned at his failure to build on a very strong position after two rounds in the WGC event at the weekend. He finished on Sunday with a triple bogey, thereby reopening the issue of his fitness levels.
Lowry, of course, still finds himself in the kind of exalted position he could have only dreamed about before his victory in Portugal last month. For Peter Lawrie, however, his situation is fraught with concern given that he his currently 60th and last of those who qualify for the Dubai Championship. He badly needs to at least make the cut in Singapore and Hong Kong to put himself in the running for the riches on offer in Dubai.
Winning the two orders of merit would be a remarkable achievement by the 23-year-old McIlroy and fully confirm his entitlement to his number one world ranking where he is also sure to finish at the end of the year.
However, the decision of both himself and Woods to skip the WGC event in which the HSBC bank put up a prize fund of $7m (€5.4m) aroused considerable debate and no little dissatisfaction, not least among sponsors who are digging deep into their pockets at a time when such riches have never been scarcer.
The Irish Open remains a case in point — one is well entitled to wonder where it would be today were it not for the fact that we have so much homegrown talent that the absence of most other big names is hardly noticed. However, the event is still without a title sponsor with little indication that anyone is knocking down the door.
Giles Morgan, head of sponsorship at HSBC, was entitled to point his finger at unofficial events — such as recent matchplay exhibitions in Turkey and China — in which Rory and Tiger picked up obscene money for little or no effort. To their credit, HSBC are sticking to their guns, even if their Champions event will become part of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup series next year with an increased prize fund of $8.5m (€6.6m).
Reports on almost a daily basis indicate Nike are set to pay McIlroy a sum in the region of $250m (€195m) over the next 10 years to play with their equipment — and it will be even more than that should he continue to pick up majors and retain number one status in the world rankings.
His presence this week in Singapore along with that of other big names Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Louis Oosthusizen means that Barclays, another bank which has poured massive money into the game over the years, won’t feel the same grievance as HSBC. He played the 2008 Barclays Singapore Open on an invitation in his early days as a professional and took a lot of confidence from finishing in fourth place over the Sentosa layout.
