That lifelong goal is why Rory McIlroy continues to play the DP World Tour

After a long season with many achievements and even more devastating landingfour-time major winner Rory McIlroy can rest in South Florida and recover for next season. Instead, he’s in the Middle East looking for a win. Why? Because he is playing for history.

McIlroy has won the last two Dubai Open titles, the season’s points competition to determine the champion of DP World Tour. Formerly known as the Order of Merit, Rory already has five titles in his career. This puts him in elite company.

Seve Ballesteros amassed six Order of Merit victories in his illustrious career, but the all-time leader is Colin Montgomery with eight outstanding victories.

But as the penultimate event of the season gets under way this week, the HSBC Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, McIlroy once again has a comfortable lead in the Race to Dubai rankings. If he plays well this week and at the DP World Tour Championship next week, he would match Seve’s total and move within two of Monty’s record.

In his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, McIlroy admitted the season title would be on his mind this week.

“A little bit, but if I go out and win this week, obviously you know, it makes it a little bit boring next week. But I won’t find it boring; it’s going to be nice,” McIlroy told reporters. “But yeah, all I can focus on is the task at hand and trying to play as well as I can this week, and if I can do that, I’ll give myself an even better chance.”

He continued, “I’ve had a lot of good chances this year. I converted a couple. But I have let some go. Try to give myself two more chances to win the golf tournaments that are important to me.”

When asked directly if the chance to pass Montgomerie on the Dubai Race’s all-time list is what drives him to push so hard on the DP World Tour after a torturous full season across the pond, McIlroy said “no it was necessarily this.”

Instead, it is a different but related lifelong goal that keeps him engaged after already achieving so much: to become the greatest European professional player ever.

“I am proud – I am a European player. I would like to go down as the most successful European of all time. “Obviously the Dubai Race wins would count for that, but so would the major championships and hopefully I’ll have a couple of Ryder Cups ahead of me,” McIlroy explained. “So that’s something that I would like, I think is a goal that is quite achievable over the next ten years. I’m very proud to be from Europe and to play in this tournament and to play in this tournament over and over again.”

He then went on to explain the idea:

“It’s something I’m very proud of and I just think about the greats of European golf that I grew up watching, whether it was Faldo or Woosie or Langer or just kind of the real pinnacle of the European Tour in the 90s. I think,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “And yes, I remember when I got my card – not even my European Tour card. I remember when I got my first money clip right when I signed up to become a member and that was a really proud moment for me. That’s something I’ve always been proud of and something I want to continue to do.”

McIlroy’s quest for victory no. Race 6 in Dubai starts on Wednesday night.

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