Rory McIlroy has been making good habit of speaking out about his career milestones lately. As 2025 begins, McIlroy said there were three things he was most focused on for the rest of his career:
– win the Masters
– win another Ryder Cup on the road
– 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 after.
It’s a much longer, quieter activity that most golf fans might miss, but trust McIlroy doesn’t think so. He wants to be considered the greatest European golfer of all time, and if he’s not quite there yet, he could get even closer to that title next week in Dubai.
McIlroy leads the Race to Dubai with a week to go, and only Tyrrell Hatton and Marco Penge have a realistic chance of getting in his way. Claiming the title one year isn’t necessarily special to McIlroy, but it is representative of something bigger. It would be his seventh career Race to Dubai title, the award previously known as the Order of Merit, and McIlroy ranks second in career figures in that regard. Colin Montgomerie is in first place with eight titles.
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 Race to Dubai title in a row and first since last year when he tied Seve Ballesteros on a total of six, making 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’re sitting in the dressing room at the Ryder Cup, and the place is just filled with seven quotes, every wall you look at. Last year in Italy we had a dressing room 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, that certainly didn’t make it easy for myself, there on the back nine.
“I think just the combination of the Seve thing and finally crossing the line in what felt like a long time, I think the emotion of it all just hit me. Yeah, that’s why I had to control myself.”
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that he started looking ahead.
‘I’ve come this far, I might as well try to get eight or nine [titles]“Achieving six and three in a row, 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 want to surpass Monty.
“But I’ve got a good 10 years left, I think. Look, again, the other thing is, who knows what the golf world will look like in a few years. But as long as The Race to Dubai happens and there’s an Order of Merit and we’re on this tour, I’ll want it, yeah.”
Fast forward 12 months and McIlroy has a better chance than ever of doing it again, thanks in part to his 62nd Sunday, which saw him run to a T3 finish in Abu Dhabi. Tyrrell Hatton should win next week and hope McIlroy finishes outside the top eight. The only finish that guarantees Marco Penge first place would be an outright victory. (And it would require McIlroy to finish outside solo second.) Otherwise, Penge needs a top-three finish and is praying 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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