The questions Rory McIlroy found so annoying in the months after his greatest feat in golf still linger. Where is the next mountain? What else is there to achieve?<\/p>\n
Now that he is nearing the end of a most sensational year, McIlroy realizes the answer lies in the form of another question.<\/p>\n
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What does it matter?<\/p>\n
There is always something more, even if more resembles a molehill compared with winning the Masters for the career Grand Slam<\/a>. McIlroy was reminded of that Tuesday at the DP World Tour Championship, where he is closing in on a seventh Race to Dubai title.<\/p>\n Colin Montgomerie holds the record of eight times being Europe’s No. 1 player.<\/p>\n \u201cTo get one closer to Monty would be amazing,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n Career changing? Hardly. The European tour never named an award after Montgomerie as it did for McIlroy on Tuesday, given to the player who performs the best in the majors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cI spent the last 18 years chasing,\u201d McIlroy said, mentioning the Sir Henry Cotton Award for the best rookie, the Harry Vardon Award for the season title and the Seve Ballesteros Award as player of the year. McIlroy is not eligible for this latest award because his name is on it.<\/p>\n His legacy was established on a late Sunday afternoon at Augusta National when he hit a gap wedge to 3 feet for birdie to win a playoff over Justin Rose at the Masters, the final piece of a prize McIlroy had been chasing for more than a decade.<\/p>\n The chase is over, even if he hasn’t stopped running.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Slightly bigger than a molehill \u2014 but certainly not Everest \u2014 would be a gold medal. McIlroy will be 39 when he gets his next chance at Riviera for the Los Angeles Olympics.<\/p>\n Speaking of Riviera, that’s a course where he would love to win. Ditto for Muirfield Village at the Memorial, which he curiously skipped this year. He has reached No. 1 in the world nine times. He has three won three FedEx Cup titles.<\/p>\n What’s next? What does it matter?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think my desire\u2019s gone. It\u2019s certainly not gone. But I think it\u2019s just going one of those things where I\u2019m not going to have to pick and choose where place my desire and what I want my goals to be,” he said.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I say I\u2019m not chasing anything, I think if I focused my energy on certain tournaments and try to play well at certain tournaments, then Race to Dubai … it sort of takes care of itself,\u201d he said. \u201cSo yeah, I guess you could say I\u2019m still chasing that, but I think that\u2019s just more a byproduct of playing the good golf that I know that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n McIlroy is on what feels like a victory lap for 2025.<\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 player in golf who had the best year with his two majors at the PGA Championship and the British Open at Royal Portrush. McIlroy would not trade his year with Scheffler or anyone else.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n