Passing Seve, Rory takes aim at Monty's mark
Despite playoff loss to Fitzpatrick, McIlroy secures seventh Race to Dubai title
Rory, Erica and Poppy McIlroy flash sevens for his season-long title count. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy hit his tee shot in the water on the 18th hole Sunday of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, all but handing the trophy to his Ryder Cup teammate Matt Fitzpatrick.
It was a tough ending after another dramatic regulation finish saw McIlroy hole a 20-footer for eagle to force a playoff.
But those were not tears of despair afterward.
McIlroy, 36, conducted a TV interview afterward in which he got emotional talking about winning another Sir Henry Cotton Award which goes to the player who earns the most points in the season-long points race now known as the Race to Dubai.
He passed Seve Ballesteros with seven such titles, just one behind the record of eight Orders of Merit collected by Colin Montgomerie.
“I didn’t get this far in my dreams,” McIlroy said.
He didn’t win the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, but McIlroy hardly left Dubai despondent.
He went to the Middle East to wrap up another season-long title, his fourth in a row, and he accomplished that goal, holding off Marco Penge who had the best chance of surpassing him.
After a year that saw many emotional highs, it was a tribute to him that he finished off another accomplishment.
“Flying here to the Middle East a couple weeks ago, my whole goal was to play well enough to make sure I won my seventh Race to Dubai title. I did that, and I’m really proud of myself,” McIlroy said. “I said this numerous times this week. I could have came in here these last two weeks of the year and relaxed a little bit and taken it easy. But I really wanted — I’m a proud person and I take pride in my performances on the golf course, and I want to give a really good account of myself these two weeks, and I feel like I’ve done that.”
McIlroy nearly pulled off another dramatic win, needing an eagle at the 18th that he got to tie Fitzpatrick
But in the playoff, his tee shot found the water. While he knocked his third up into a bunker, he was unable to get up and down for a par that would have extended the playoff.
Still, McIlroy ended the official golf year — the DP World Tour’s new season begins next week — with an array of accomplishments.
He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He won the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament, the Players.
He won the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam.
He won the Irish Open.
He won an away Ryder Cup.
And now the Race to Dubai title.
Although it seems, perhaps, hard to believe, McIlroy will begin pursuit of a record-tying eight Order of Merits in just two weeks. The DP World Tour begins its 2025-26 season next week at the Australian PGA Championship, followed by the Australian Open where McIlroy is in the field at Royal Melbourne.
He then plans to play the Dubai Invitational and the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, giving him three starts before embarking on his PGA Tour schedule, likely defending at Pebble Beach in early February.
“I want it, of course I do,” McIlroy said of the Race to Dubai title. “I caught up with Monty this week when he was here a couple days ago and I saw him. Look, it seems within touching distance now. I’d love to be the winningest European in terms of Order of Merits and season-long races.
“I’ve probably got a few more good years left in me, and hopefully I can catch him and surpass him.”