Rory McIlroy wants no more ‘hiccups’ as he eyes full European Tour schedule
After starting the final round a shot behind Andy Sullivan, McIlroy carded eight birdies to surge into a two-shot lead with two holes to play, only to then dump his tee shot into the water on the par-three 17th.
However, the four-time major winner holed from 30 feet to salvage what he called the best bogey of his career and take a one-shot lead up the 18th, which proved just enough to secure his fourth win of the year after Sullivan’s birdie attempt narrowly missed.
“I guess if I had been tied playing the last I would have backed myself with my length, but giving myself that one-shot cushion made a huge difference and I was able to just hang on,” McIlroy said after a closing 66 saw him finish 21 under par at Jumeirah Golf Estates, one shot ahead of Sullivan.
“I’ve played really good golf this week, 13 under par at the weekend. I couldn’t think of a better way to finish the season so I’m really happy going into the Christmas break and looking forward to what’s in store for 2016. I’m looking forward to playing a full European Tour schedule next year with no hiccups.”
McIlroy missed three tournaments this summer, including the defence of his Open title at St Andrews, due to an ankle injury suffered playing football with friends and needed a controversial exemption to compete in the European Tour’s season finale after not playing enough events. That exemption – which nearest Race to Dubai rival Danny Willett felt gave McIlroy an unfair advantage – proved to be worth a total of £2.1million thanks to the winner’s cheque and the 26-year-old’s share of the £4million bonus pool.
Willett had to settle for a six-way tie for fourth on 13 under which included Italy’s Francesco Molinari, who recorded a hole-in-one on the sixth in a final round of 68.
“I guess if someone had said you’re going to finish fourth and see where that gets you, you might have taken it,” Willett said. “Unfortunately we are going to come up shy by one on the Race to Dubai but hopefully next year we’re in a similar position and can try and change the story.”
Sullivan was ranked 150th in the world at the end of 2014 but won twice in South Africa and led from start to finish in the Portugal Masters last month to climb into the top 40. Staying inside the top 50 at the end of the year will secure a Masters debut next April.
Even before McIlroy had completed a dramatic victory in the DP World Tour Championship to bring the 2015 European Tour season to a close, many of his fellow players were flying to South Africa to start the new season on Thursday.
Of course, many of the players competing in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek will be grateful for the opportunity to escape poor weather at home and get a head start on the task of keeping their card or improving their world ranking.
But there is no doubt that the likes of McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose are not fans of the current trend for “wraparound” seasons on the European and PGA Tour and are relishing breaks of up 10 weeks over the winter.
“I think because Abu Dhabi next year is being pushed back a week, it’s probably the longest break I’ve had since 2009,” McIlroy said. “I always try to draw a line in the sand at some point. I could go and play in Tiger’s event in the Bahamas in a couple weeks or go to Sun City, but I just don’t.... the good and bad thing about golf is it doesn’t really have an off-season. I really feel, even though I’ve had a few weeks off over the summer, I need that off period just to reflect on things, re-evaluate how I want to go forward.
“I want to try and get healthy and get stronger again because I haven’t been able to do as much in the gym as I would have liked over the past few months. I’ve got an eight-week period where I don’t have to play golf. I don’t have to worry about being sore.
“I might hit a few shots between now and the new year, but I won’t get serious until after the new year when I come back here to Dubai early January and start to practise again before the season.”
Poulter made his feelings known in typical fashion on Twitter, writing: “You have no idea how happy I will be when that (airplane) seat reclines and heads to Orlando.”
The 39-year-old started the week by having a cortisone injection in a niggling foot injury and is relishing the thought of 10 weeks off, while Stenson has one more event – the Nedbank Challenge next week – before he has a knee operation in December.
Despite seeking a hat-trick of victories in Dubai, Stenson admitted his mental focus was simply not there and he never recovered from an opening 77, joking after his second round: “’We just tried to be finished very quickly so we could go and see the family that I haven’t seen in a month. It was all tactics really, to shoot a bad score yesterday, be out first this morning and then I can spend the afternoon at the Atlantis with the kids.”
New chief executive Keith Pelley has pledged to make the European Tour a “viable alternative” to the PGA Tour within three to five years.
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