Rory McIlroy holds an unassailable lead over Jon Rahm in the Race to Dubai rankings and has secured his fifth Order of Merit title. watch the DP World Tour Championship live on Thursday from 7am. on Sky Sports Golf
With Nick Dougherty, golf expert
15:55, United Kingdom, Monday 13 November 2023
How did Rory McIlroy complete the race for Dubai for the fifth time despite playing a limited schedule on the DP World Tour? Nick Dougherty reflects on his impressive season and why he is a deserving Medal of Merit winner once again…
A little bit of the drama may have been taken out of the DP World Tour Championship this year because we already know who the No. 1 seed is in the race for Dubai, but I think that’s more a testament to the quality of golf that McIlroy has played and the consistency that he has offered.
You look at McIlroy’s performances on both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour since the PGA Championship in May and he’s barely finished outside the top 10, which is just incredible.
There was the Genesis Scottish Open win in July to add to his Hero Dubai Desert Classic win earlier in the year, so winning two Rolex Series events was always going to make him hard to catch.
Throw in his performance in the majors, a runner-up finish at the US Open flanked by decent performances at Oak Hill and The Open, and you have the makings of a player who has just had another really good year.
McIlroy may not have grabbed as many headlines because we saw those four wins earlier in the year from Jon Rahm and then Scottie Scheffler being incredibly impressive on the PGA Tour, but his year once again reiterates the kind of player that it is also a consequence it offers.
The right Race to Dubai champion?
McIlroy has now won the Order of Merit five times and has been the standout player for the past decade or more, with the only thing he’s missing – and what he desperately wants more than anything else – is to add to that significant number of championships .
I understand the frustration some viewers feel when they watch him not have his best stuff, because you feel like he can get even better, but that just validates the bar he’s set within the game.
McIlroy balances being a world player and playing most of his golf on the PGA Tour to come and support the DP World Tour, where he still manages to rack up enough points to beat the guys who play every week here.
The fact that McIlroy completed the Order of Merit in just nine appearances shows that when he played, he was better than the rest. You want the No. 1 to be the best player and for me, this season, he has lived up to that title.
I understand the romance of saying that someone who plays the whole season on the DP World Tour and gets results should get the trophy, but with the infrastructure of the game as it is now that won’t always be possible with the changing schedule.
We’ll see more and more of the top players at the end of the season, and up until this point we’ve mostly seen them return for Rolex Series events. McIlroy has done that and won two out of four this season, so I think he will be the right man to hold the Harry Vardon Trophy.
Ready for McIlroy to impress again?
Normally you’d expect a player to be a little rusty after a few weeks off like McIlroy has been since the Ryder Cup, but there are a few reasons why we shouldn’t expect that from him this week at the DP World Tour Championship.
McIlroy is used to having nice chunks of space on his schedule and we’ve seen him perform well when he’s done it in the past, plus he obviously has a great record in Dubai and has already won on the Earth Course twice before.
He comes in confident with his Order of Merit title wrapped up, although he’s a player you could argue performs even better when the pressure is on him. He was one of the shining lights for Europe at the Ryder Cup and will be buzzing to do so here in Dubai.
I love the fact that almost all of our Ryder Cup team will be participating this week, which shows how much this event means to the best players on the DP World Tour. It will add even more energy to an already big week to end the season.
It’s hard to imagine McIlroy being away on Sunday afternoon, although Rahm has played well for stretches this year and Viktor Hovland is obviously the hot hand after this brilliant end to the PGA Tour season to win the FedExCup. It will be a great race!
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