News
Hotshot McIlroy in race to finishing line
20 November 2009
Back to ArchiveRory McIlroy, the hottest young talent in golf, has declared his immediate priority is to become the inaugural Race to Dubai champion and has set his sights on the season finale at the Dubai World Championship.
The 20-year-old, who currently lies third in the rankings behind Race leader Martin Kaymer and England’s Paul Casey, has had an impressive year, winning the Dubai Desert Classic and rising from 115th to 24th in the world rankings over the past 12 months.
A strong performance at Jumeirah Golf Estates in November would give him the chance to become the first winner of the inaugural Race to Dubai and the Northern Irishman insists he is totally committed to finishing off his season on a winning note.
“The Race to Dubai is my main goal now,” he said. “There are only a few events to go and it would be great to be European No 1 at the end of it.
“Hopefully I can make the ground up on Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey and be in with a chance come November.”
World Number One Tiger Woods won his first major when he claimed the 1997 Masters at the age of 21, but McIlroy is not putting himself under pressure to win grand slam title just yet and for now the focus remains The Race to Dubai.
“I’d love to be able to say one day that I have won a major – and I don’t want to win just one – but it is all very well talking about it but going out and doing it is a very different thing.
“I look at the guys around me and I feel that on a good day I can beat most of them. This year has been a great year, but it has only been a stepping stone, a building block to greater things in the years ahead.”
