McIlroy named Race to Dubai golfer of the month

RORY McILROY’S history-making US Open triumph received further recognition yesterday when he was named The 2011 Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Month for June.

The 22-year-old from Holywood landed his first major on June 19 when he completed a wire-to-wire eight-stroke victory at Congressional Country Club, beating the lowest winning score (268) in the championship’s history by four strokes to become the youngest US Open winner since Bobby Jones in 1923.

“It is always nice to win any award for playing good golf but this Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Month has to go down as an extra special one given that I won the award due to my performance at Congressional,” McIlroy said.

“I hope this will not be the first golfer of the month award I receive after winning a major championship.”

Just as McIlroy lapped the field at Congressional, his US Open success left all other candidates for the European Tour monthly award in his wake, although there were honourable mentions for Alex Noren’s Wales Open victory, Robert Rock’s maiden European Tour title at the BMW Italian Open and Pablo Larrazabal’s play-off win over Spaniard Sergio Garcia for the BMW International Open.

Also considered were Fredrik Jacobsen’s maiden US victory at the PGA Tour’s Travellers Championship and the home win in the French Open for Thomas Levet.

McIlroy follows previous monthly winners for consideration for The 2011 Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year Award, which was won jointly by Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer in 2010. Kaymer won the January award this year, followed by Luke Donald (February and May), Paul Lawrie (March) and Charl Schwartzel (April).