Golf

McIlroy bids to hit the ground running as he makes his seasonal bow

World number one in confident mood prior to Hero Dubai Desert Classic in which three of his Irish peers also compete

Rory McIlroy in action on the driving range prior to the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photograph: Luke Walker/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy in action on the driving range prior to the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photograph: Luke Walker/Getty Images
Mon Jan 23 2023 - 19:00

What goes around comes around and, for Rory McIlroy, the cycle which ended in the desert last November kicks off again in Dubai.

For the world number one, the start of his new year of golf comes as the headline act in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic starting on Thursday as he bids to hit the ground running in what promises to be a big year for the Northern Irishman.

Nothing new in that. If the truth be known, every year since he turned professional has been a big year. However, it seems that McIlroy – given his performances of last year, which saw him finish number one on both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, even in the absence of another Major on his CV – is in as good a place as he has ever been when doing what he does best inside the ropes with tournament titles on the line.

McIlroy, a two-time winner of the Desert Classic, firstly in 2009 and again in 2015, is back on familiar ground in kick-starting his year’s work with this week’s introduction to competition followed by a return to the PGA Tour where the upgraded Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational are pencilled into his schedule next month.

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Intriguingly, McIlroy’s winter break – he hasn’t played since the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at the tail-end of November – has seen his lead atop the world rankings narrow considerably. Back then, McIlroy held more than a two points cushion over Jon Rahm with the Spaniard ranked fifth at that time.

McIlroy’s inactivity combined with Rahm’s red-hot form has now seen that gap cut to 0.22 with the possibility of a further repositioning this week depending on how McIlroy fares in Dubai and Rahm in California.

On becoming the first player to secure the PGA Tour and DP World in the same year, McIlroy observed at the time: “I think one of the things I’m really proud of over the last few years is I don’t feel I have to rely on one aspect of my game. If my driving isn’t there, then my putter bails me out. If my putter isn’t there, my iron play bails me out.

“I feel like when you get to this level, it’s like, ‘okay, how can you make those incremental improvements to get better’, and I think my goal has been to just become a more complete golfer and I feel like I’m on the journey to doing that. Definitely, I’m as complete a golfer as I feel like I’ve ever been, and hopefully I can continue on that path.”

As complete a golfer as McIlroy seemed through 2022, there’s no doubt Rahm has been the most complete golfer of recent months and the developing rivalry has the potential too to provide as strong a backbone as any Europe team has had in a Ryder Cup year.

And Victor Perez – whose win in the Abu Dhabi Championship moved him from 111th to 63rd in the world rankings but also into an automatic place in the standings for Europe’s Ryder Cup team – has identified following the likes of McIlroy and Rahm onto the PGA Tour as his career pathway to even greater things, especially with the avenue to a card stateside opened up by the new partnership between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour.

“I think that’s everyone’s goal. I think the Tour has done such a great job giving us the opportunity. It’s never been easier to get on the PGA Tour for European Tour players because now we have those ten cards. You have all the Rory McIlroys and Jon Rahms of the world that are on list but are going to be taken out.

“So it’s really going to drop to, whatever, the 20th position and gives us a great category when you get to America and it doesn’t have to go through that Top-50 world, which if you have a limited amount of points, forces you to perform or forces you to go to Korn Ferry finals which is very difficult to go through and then you might not have a great category.

“I think there’s a lot of Europeans that are starting to break through and go over there. You see guys at the Hero Cup last week playing very well, and then going back to the PGA Tour. That’s inspiring and something that I think we all want to do,” admitted Perez.

While McIlroy is letting his clubs do the talking for the first time this year in making his competitive return, the three other Irish players in the field in Dubai carry different momentum into the Rolex Series event.

Pádraig Harrington’s fourth-place finish showed just how well he is playing. Tom McKibbin narrowly missed the cut in Abu Dhabi but has benefited from a sponsor’s invitation (no doubt with a helping hand from McIlroy’s contacts) in his bid to consolidate a strong start to his rookie season while Lowry will look to put that final round disappointment of Sunday right behind him.