{"id":285554,"date":"2025-11-11T16:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285554\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T16:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:01:09","slug":"i-dont-feel-like-chasing-as-much-any-more-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285554\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t feel like chasing as much any more\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grey hairs may be more pronounced and the curls less so, but Rory McIlroy<\/a> \u2013 now 36 years old \u2013 is insistent that his \u201cdesire\u201d remains as strong as ever, even if he is replotting future itineraries with so many of his goals already achieved.<\/p>\n

McIlroy was speaking ahead of the DP World Tour<\/a> Championship where he is aiming to close out a seventh career Harry Vardon Trophy for topping the season-long order of merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think my desire\u2019s gone, it\u2019s certainly not gone. But I think it\u2019s just going to be one of those things where I\u2019m not going to have to pick and choose where to sort of place my desire and what I want my goals to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly not less driven but maybe just more driven in focused areas. Yeah, I don\u2019t feel like chasing as much any more. I\u2019m not out chasing the Grand Slam, I\u2019m not chasing these things. I\u2019m very content with what I\u2019ve done in the game. I\u2019m still driven to do more, but you know, it\u2019s sort of a pinpoint to drive in certain directions.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy \u2013 who has a 767 points lead over his nearest challenger Marco Penge in the Race to Dubai standings headed into this week\u2019s finale at the Greg Norman-designed Earth course in the UAE \u2013 is looking to move to within one of Colin Montgomerie\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

He explained of that readjustment: \u201cI wanted to prioritise it again. You look at my third Race to Dubai title in 2015, and there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory 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 <\/p>\n

\u201cI think after Covid, I said, \u2018okay, what are some things that I want to do for the next 10 or 15 years of my career?\u2019 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo 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\u2019m not saying I didn\u2019t make an effort but just prioritise it a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy has only played 10 counting events on the DP World Tour this season compared to Penge\u2019s 25, with the Englishman enjoying a breakout year with three wins. McIlroy\u2019s wins in the Masters and the Amgen Irish Open \u2013 both in playoffs \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week I\u2019ve got one eye on trying to win the tournament but then another eye on making sure I keep Marco at bay. He\u2019s had an amazing year, winning three times. He\u2019s 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\u2019t look like he\u2019s 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,\u201d said McIlroy of his chief pursuer in Dubai.<\/p>\n

That quest for the Harry Vardon Trophy is still a pursuit of his own, though. As he put it: \u201cTo 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\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 almost sort of takes care of itself. 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

And, in adding further to his legacy, the DP World Tour announced the new Rory McIlroy Award \u2013 for which he himself is ineligible \u2013 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\u2019s feat in becoming the first European player to win the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grey hairs may be more pronounced and the curls less so, but Rory McIlroy \u2013 now 36…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[13037,427,6082,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-285554","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}