{"id":245617,"date":"2025-11-05T16:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/245617\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:39:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-planning-to-reduce-his-schedule-in-the-future-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/245617\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy planning to reduce his schedule in the future \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One part of the secret to Rory McIlroy<\/a>\u2019s success this year has been a reduced playing schedule, and the world number two \u2013 who ticked the biggest box of all in completing the career Grand Slam with his Masters win back in April \u2013 is open to further scaling down his itinerary going forward in his pursuit of other goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, if anything, playing even less than I have this year,\u201d remarked McIlroy of his plans going forward with already two decades of life on tour behind him.<\/p>\n

McIlroy \u2013 competing in this week\u2019s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and next week\u2019s DP World Tour Championship finale \u2013 is on the cusp of a seventh career Harry Vardon Trophy for topping the order of merit, which would place him one behind Colin Montgomerie\u2019s record eight, and doesn\u2019t envisage any way he\u2019d reduce his playing options on his home circuit, rather more inclined to further cut back on his commitments on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll play the same amount of tournaments on the DP World Tour, if not more, but I\u2019ve alluded to the fact that I\u2019m going to play a little bit less just throughout the year, really prioritise the Major championships and a few of the other bigger events,\u201d said McIlroy, who is now 36 years of age, adding:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world of golf does a really good job of keeping you on the hamster wheel. And sometimes it\u2019s nice to get off that hamster wheel and do things your own way.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019m not getting any younger. If I want to play competitively for another 10 years like Justin Rose has, for example, I have to remember that I\u2019m not 23 any more and I can\u2019t play that schedule forever. So I think to try to have the longevity that I want to have, I\u2019m going to have to cut back my schedule a little bit over these next few years to make sure I stay injury-free and I play up until the point that I want to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m a better player now than I was 10 years ago, and what, when I\u2019m 46 and not 36, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be able to say that. But I definitely think that I can still keep improving in certain areas and get even better. That\u2019s a fun thing to be able to say nearly 20 years into a professional career.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy is number one on the Race to Dubai standings with just the two tournaments in the UAE left, although both have elevated points in the no-cut fields \u2013 reduced to 50 plus those European Ryder Cup players from Bethpage who don\u2019t make that criteria but qualify under a special exemption \u2013 which means there remains work to do to close the deal.<\/p>\n

As thing stand, McIlroy has a 441 points lead over English player Marco Penge \u2013 4,132 points to 3,691 \u2013 while third placed Tyrrell Hatton also has a mathematical chance, but that would be dependent too on the Northern Irishman not playing well in each event on courses where he has traditionally performed well. McIlroy, it would seem, has destiny in his own hands.<\/p>\n

The Lowdown\"AA general view of the 17th hole at Yas Links Golf Course. Photograph: Andrew Redington\/Getty Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship <\/p>\n

Purse: \u20ac8.3 million (\u20ac1.35 to the winner)<\/p>\n

Where: Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE<\/p>\n

The course: Yas Links is located close by the Arabian Gulf. Designed by Kyle Phillips, it plays host to the championship for the fourth. It is a contrived links \u2013 7,425 yards Par 72 \u2013 and wind off the gulf will be a factor. There are eight spectacular holes located along the Gulf shoreline and, placing an emphasis on course management, the layout features more than 140 bunkers.<\/p>\n

The field: Its position as the penultimate tournament on the DP World Tour schedule with elevated points has ensured a stellar field headlined by world number two Rory McIlroy. Eight members of Europe\u2019s winning Ryder Cup team are in action \u2013 McIlroy, Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig \u00c5berg, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rasmus H\u00f8jgaard and Robert MacIntyre \u2013 while Tom McKibbin comes in on the back of his fine win in the Link Hong Kong Open on the Asian Tour last weekend, which earned him places in next year\u2019s Masters and Open Championship.<\/p>\n

Quote-Unquote: \u201cThis week and next week. I definitely want to finish 2025 as strong as possible. I think, on the whole, there\u2019s definitely some goals left in 2025. Certain ones that I can\u2019t reach now and certain ones that I still can. Looking towards 2026, I still feel like I have a lot to give and a lot of improvements that I can make. So I think there\u2019s more potential in me. Whether that\u2019s the case or not, we don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll see where my career takes me and where my golf takes me\u201d \u2013 Tommy Fleetwood, who won the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour, focusing on the immediate challenge of the closing two events on the DP World Tour this season and also on what lies ahead next season.<\/p>\n

Irish in the field: Shane Lowry<\/a> can thank the previously little-known exemption for current Ryder Cup players for getting into the field, rewarded with a tee-time that has him playing alongside fellow-European winning members Fleetwood and H\u00f8jgaard (off the 1st, 4.01am Irish time); Rory McIlroy is in a group with Tyrrell Hatton and Marco Penge (off the 1st, 5.23am Irish time), while Tom McKibbin is in a three-ball with Keita Nakajima and Martin Couvra (off the 1st, 7.39am Irish time).<\/p>\n

\"TyrrellTyrrell Hatton of England tees off. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty <\/p>\n

Betting: Yas Links has produced a variety of winners in its previous three stagings of the tournament \u2013 Paul Waring last year, Victor Perez in 2023 and Thomas Pieters in 2022 \u2013 so there is a rather open market to consider. Rory McIlroy is the 5-1 favourite ahead of Tommy Fleetwood at 11-2 but it is Tyrrell Hatton \u2013 runner-up to Waring last year \u2013 who looks well priced at 8-1. Marco Penge is worth an each-way look at 22\/1 while Alex Fitzpatrick\u2019s strong run of form which has earned him a place in the field is also worth an ew look at 60-1.<\/p>\n

On TV: Live on Sky Sports (live coverage from 4am).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One part of the secret to Rory McIlroy\u2019s success this year has been a reduced playing schedule, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[43452,5904,2623,3027,101,11767,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-245617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-dp-world-tour","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-shane-lowry","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tom-mckibbin","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}