The grey hairs may be more pronounced and the curls less so, but Rory McIlroy – now 36 years old – is insistent that his “desire” remains as strong as ever, even if he is replotting future itineraries with so many of his goals already achieved.
McIlroy was speaking ahead of the DP World Tour Championship where he is aiming to close out a seventh career Harry Vardon Trophy for topping the season-long order of merit.
“I don’t think my desire’s gone, it’s certainly not gone. But I think it’s just going to be one of those things where I’m not going to have to pick and choose where to sort of place my desire and what I want my goals to be.
“I’m certainly not less driven but maybe just more driven in focused areas. Yeah, I don’t feel like chasing as much any more. I’m not out chasing the Grand Slam, I’m not chasing these things. I’m very content with what I’ve done in the game. I’m still driven to do more, but you know, it’s sort of a pinpoint to drive in certain directions.”
McIlroy – who has a 767 points lead over his nearest challenger Marco Penge in the Race to Dubai standings headed into this week’s finale at the Greg Norman-designed Earth course in the UAE – is looking to move to within one of Colin Montgomerie’s record eight order of merit titles and admitted that he had refocused his ambitions post-Covid to include catching and passing Monty on that honours list.
He explained of that readjustment: “I wanted to prioritise it again. You look at my third Race to Dubai title in 2015, and there’s a big gap [to his next in 2022], but in that gap, I won three FedExCup titles [on the PGA Tour]. So it was almost as if I prioritised a little bit the other side of the pond.
Rory McIlroy plays a shot during the pro-am prior to the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
“I think after Covid, I said, ‘okay, what are some things that I want to do for the next 10 or 15 years of my career?’ And one of those was trying to prioritise this tour a little bit again and trying to win The Race to Dubai a few more times. But it’s also coincided with better play in the Majors. Because as a dual member of both, to have a chance to win, you really need to play well in those bigger events.
“So the Majors, the Rolex series events, the co-sanctioned Scottish Open, those are the events you have to play well in to have a chance. I’m not saying I didn’t make an effort but just prioritise it a little bit more.”
McIlroy has only played 10 counting events on the DP World Tour this season compared to Penge’s 25, with the Englishman enjoying a breakout year with three wins. McIlroy’s wins in the Masters and the Amgen Irish Open – both in playoffs – combined with a runners-up finish in the Genesis Scottish Open enabled him to navigate a way to the top of the Race to Dubai points table ahead of Penge, whose wins came in the Hainan Classic, Danish Championship and Spanish Open.
“This week I’ve got one eye on trying to win the tournament but then another eye on making sure I keep Marco at bay. He’s had an amazing year, winning three times. He’s an amazing talent. I got to play with him the first two days last week. Hits it a mile. He looks really, really good over it. Doesn’t look like he’s got a ton of weaknesses. I think the only thing he needs to do is gain experience, and gain experience playing in different courses and different conditions,” said McIlroy of his chief pursuer in Dubai.
That quest for the Harry Vardon Trophy is still a pursuit of his own, though. As he put it: “To move from six to seven, to go one past Seve [Ballesteros] would be amazing. To get one closer to Monty would be amazing. But I think when I say I’m 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 almost sort of takes care of itself. I guess you could say I’m still chasing that, but I think that’s just more a byproduct of playing the good golf that I know that I can.”
And, in adding further to his legacy, the DP World Tour announced the new Rory McIlroy Award – for which he himself is ineligible – to be awarded annually to the player from the tour who performs best in the four Majors each year. It is a tip of the cap to McIlroy’s feat in becoming the first European player to win the career Grand Slam.