The post Rory McIlroy explains touching reason why ‘Seve’ gets him emotional appeared first on Golf.

The post Rory McIlroy explains touching reason why ‘Seve’ gets him emotional appeared first on Golf.

DUBAI — Rory McIlroy didn’t just look spent Sunday evening, he sounded spent — finally, exasperatingly seated for the first time in hours. His voice was hoarse and his shoulders seemed to have exhaled just as much as his lungs. 

McIlroy had lost a playoff but won a seventh career Race to Dubai title, all after eagling the 72nd hole — the combination of which would send any of us into the depths of our chair cushions. But at this point in his career — after a lifetime of lifting trophies in this Middle Eastern country alone — very few literal results could get McIlroy so emotional. It’s the results with special meaning that pull it out of him, and this was clearly one of those. 

European golf followers wouldn’t be surprised. About a half hour earlier, McIlroy gave a greenside interview to Sky Sports interviewer Tim Barter, where the topic of Seve Ballesteros was raised. McIlroy had passed him into second all-time for Race to Dubai titles. 

“It’s amazing,” McIlroy said, taking a deep breath. “I had a conversation with his wife, Carmen, before I went out to play today and she told me how proud he would have been.

“Yeah, it’s — aaah.”

Another big breath. 

“I said this on this green last year to you,” McIlroy continued. “He means so much to this tour and to the European Ryder Cup Team. We rally so much around his spirit and his quotes and everything he meant for European golf.

“To equal him last year was cool but to surpass him this year — yeah, I didn’t get this far in my dreams. So it’s very cool.”

He teased it, so no, you’re not imagining it. McIlroy gave almost this exact same interview to Barter last year.

We’ve seen this a few times now — McIlroy getting choked up at the mere mention of Ballesteros’ name. He certainly made part of the reason clear in those answers, too. The Ghost of Seve is very real for anyone at the DP World Tour and anyone connected to Ryder Cup Europe. His quotes are on every commemorative wall. The silhouette of his swing is iconic. But for this reaction to arrive multiple times for McIlroy, in such similar scenarios — just 12 months apart — made me at least wonder if there was any extra meaning for him.

Few pros are as introspective and vulnerable enough to share those inner thoughts as McIlroy, so it’s possible he’d thought about it, too. Why does he not get nearly as emotional when discussing his Irish golfing heroes? Or Tiger Woods? Arnold Palmer? 

The truth sits with Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s golf-obsessed father, who along with his mother, worked multiple jobs so their son could pursue what would end up being a Grand Slam golf career. 

“I think Seve’s spirit lives on in the European Tour and in the European Ryder Cup Team, and he was always my dad’s favorite player,” McIlroy said during the first question of that press conference. His voice went from slightly-hoarse to something much more gentle. He blinked away a few tears and shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, he’s a beacon of what European golf stands for, and I … I just think about growing up and playing golf and my dad being such a big part of it, and then, his sort of connection with Seve — or Seve was the one that really inspired him to play golf. And then, I don’t know, it’s just a parallel to that.”

This was an answer getting pieced together one emotional word at a time, like extra cars to a train already in motion. But then he picked up steam and finished with a smile.

“When I hear Seve, it just sort of brings me back through my whole journey in the game, and yeah, it’s quite emotional.”

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The post Rory McIlroy falls short in Dubai after 18th-hole heroics, but still wins season-long race appeared first on Golf.

The post Rory McIlroy falls short in Dubai after 18th-hole heroics, but still wins season-long race appeared first on Golf.

It was a finish for the ages at the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Earth Course in Dubai, as Rory McIlroy drained a 16-foot putt for eagle to earn a spot in a playoff for a title defense and his fourth DP World Tour Championship.

But McIlroy’s fairytale finish was not to be, as his playoff adversary, Matt Fitzpatrick, got up-and-down for par on the first sudden-death hole to claim his third DP World Tour Championship title, and first DP World Tour title since the 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Fitzpatrick started the final round trailing McIlroy’s co-lead by one, but asserted himself early, making three birdies in his first five holes. He ultimately signed for a round of 66, reaching a four-round total of 18 under par. Laurie Canter, Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen finished one shot behind.

“It means the world,” Fitzpatrick said of his win after his round. “I struggled at the start of this year, obviously, and to turn it around in the summer like I did and have a Ryder Cup like I did…the Ryder Cup in particular, I feel like it’s hard to top given everything. But the way that I played today, I feel like I really didn’t hit one bad shot all day. I’m so proud of myself, the effort that everyone puts in behind the scenes. Yeah, what a feeling. What a feeling.”

For McIlroy, the runner-up finish was enough to earn him a seventh Race to Dubai trophy. The achievement is his fourth consecutive season-long title, surpassing Seve Ballesteros’ mark of six, and putting him just one shy of Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight.

“I was the first European to win the Grand Slam and I’d love to be the most successful European in terms of winning Order of Merits and season-long races,” McIlroy said Sunday. “I’ve hopefully got a few more good years left in me, and hopefully I can catch (Montgomerie) and surpass him.”

The DP World Tour season is now complete after 42 tournaments. But there’s only a short one-week layoff between seasons. The Tour kicks off again with the “opening swing” in Australia on November 27.

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The post Rory McIlroy’s umpteenth Dubai lead is anything but boring appeared first on Golf.

The post Rory McIlroy’s umpteenth Dubai lead is anything but boring appeared first on Golf.

DUBAI — With what would seem like less-than-his-best stuff, Rory McIlroy still leads in Dubai. Rinse, repeat; rinse, repeat. In this country, it feels inevitable. 

It’s no less impressive this time but it is much of what this tournament and this part of the world has seen from McIlroy, who once call Dubai home early in his career. After winning the DP World Tour Championship last fall — en route to a third-straight Race to Dubai title — McIlroy holds a share of the lead through 54 holes again. As a result, he is a dominant favorite to claim a fourth-straight Race to Dubai. Only Tyrrell Hatton (one shot back) could get in his way, and a Hatton win may not even be enough.

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McIlroy has shown moments of inadequacy (and frustration) this week — half-faking like he would pile-drive his putter into one green Saturday afternoon — but the inevitability of his game right now looks something like 67 or 68 strokes around the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. Any score starting with a 7 would be shocking. His last seven rounds here:

68-69-66-69-69-69-67

He has admitted to trying to “piece together” sections of the course this week when he’s hasn’t felt his best, even using his “scoring skills” to grind out a sub-70 round Friday. There was that ugly bogey from the middle of the fairway on the 1st — things you can’t get away with twice, but he might just try on Sunday. When his putter started wobbly in the third round — missing multiple three-footers in the first four holes — he let it affect him for a bit. But ultimately his long game thrives at a course that accentuates it. 

On Sunday, he’ll find himself playing alongside Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, a young Dane with zero career wins on this level. On their heels are six others — namely Tommy Fleetwood and Hatton, who both seem to be playing the best golf of their lives. You could say the same about a number of others one shot back, like Laurie Canter and rookie Angel Ayora. The best golf of their lives, it would seem. And against McIlroy, on this course, it may not matter. 

Perhaps the best example came at the last — a par 5 up the hill that is all about positioning around a creek bed that snakes toward the clubhouse. It’s a United Arab Emirates version of the 18th at Valhalla, another course McIlroy has dominated. After driving it exquisitely most of the day, McIlroy flared one out to the right, leaving it on the imported, maroon wood chips that surround much of the Earth Course’s grassy areas. From there he pitched out and pitched on to eight feet, holing the putt and calling an end to what felt like an otherwise average day, and nearly calling an end to the Race to Dubai 24 hours early.

In regards to his nearest competitor for that award, McIlroy isn’t considering him much. And why should he?

“I’m focused on myself,” he said. “If I go out and play the golf that I know I’m capable of, especially around this golf course, I know that it will be okay.”

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The post Rory McIlroy’s latest career inspiration comes from a surprising source appeared first on Golf.

The post Rory McIlroy’s latest career inspiration comes from a surprising source appeared first on Golf.

DUBAI — It’s been a yo-yo kind of year when it comes to Rory McIlroy and what motivates him. There was always the Masters, of course, that final unchecked box of the Grand Slam prior to April 2025. But after the Masters? McIlroy admitted he fell into motivational lull that seemed to last multiple months. 

After that lull came two events he’d long circled on his calendar: his home Open Championship, at Royal Portrush, and an away Ryder Cup. There was no problem getting up for those emotional contests. But now that he’s here, in the 11th month of a jam-packed year, polishing off what he recently called a “10 out of 10” season, the topic of inspiration rose again Thursday evening. 

McIlroy had just signed for an opening 66 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates — just a tick below his recent, stellar average here — when he was prompted with the topic of stamina. He’s in the Middle East now — for the DP World Tour Championship — and he’s headed to London next week. He’ll be on to Australia in early December. Last month he was in India, and before that took part in the most mentally exhausting Ryder Cup he’s ever played. Before that was his three-win, one-crowning-major PGA Tour season. So has this year taken something out of him? 

Maybe a little, he admitted. But he added that keeping his mind right and his body right are endlessly connected. 

“I was really inspired by what Justin Rose did at Memphis this year,” McIlroy began. “And then what he did at the Ryder Cup. And I look at what he does, you know, to play at this level at 45 years of age. I’d love to be able to say — I hopefully will be able to do the same thing in 10 years’ time. 

“I look at him, I look at some of the things that he does. He’s got his own recovery trailer on tour, and he puts a lot of time in to just making sure that his body’s in the right place.”

He sure does. Rose sends that recovery trailer around the U.S. to any event he’s playing, outfitted with a red-light bed, colt and hot tubs, a stationary bike, fresh oxygen masks, a steam shower and infra-red sauna. That Rose cares about his fitness is no anomaly in these days of Strokes Gained: Body Time, but the work has driven results. 

There was the win in Memphis that McIlroy alluded to, his 2-1 performance at Bethpage, but also his runner-up finish to McIlroy at the Masters, or that T3 finish behind McIlroy at Pebble Beach, or the T2 finish last summer behind Xander Schauffele at the 2024 Open Championship. 

Despite Rose’s improbable accomplishments, there is something about a pro golfer’s early 40s that plays out much more like a real coin flip. You have your Rose types, or Sergio Garcias and Adam Scotts; maybe even Henrik Stenson — who won the 2016 Open at 41 years old. But for every one of them there are just as many who cross the imaginary threshold into their fifth decade and their game doesn’t seem to follow. Dustin Johnson, who turned professional around the same time as McIlroy and found his mid-30s quite fruitful, is finding his early 40s much less so.

The way McIlroy intends to ensure he’s the right side of that coin, he thinks, comes down to how much golf he puts this body through in 2026, particularly after (lengthy) banner seasons in 2024 and 2025. 

“I think if I want to play another 10 years at the highest level,” McIlroy posited, “then, yeah, I’m gonna have to scale back my schedule so that — you know, it’s a weird one — I want to play less every year to play more into the future, you know?”

That “weird” theory — playing less to play longer — comes alongside the fact that his 27 events in 2024 were the most he’d played in a decade. Twenty-five events in 2025 feels like an upper limit.

“I think, as the years go on, I’m going to try to pare it back to 20 [events] or try to get as close to 20 as possible,” McIlroy said. “But the only reason is to look to the future and look to, okay, when I am Justin Rose’s age, I want to have the game and the stamina to play the way he’s playing at that age.”

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