If not quite a box-ticking exercise, Rory McIlroy – on course for a sixth career Harry Vardon Trophy for winning the order of merit – was sure-footed in taking the opening steps towards securing that target. He hit an opening round of five-under-par 67 in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship on The Earth course in Dubai, where he held a share of the lead with Ryder Cup colleague Tyrrell Hatton.
The only scenario in which McIlroy would not lay claim to another order of merit would be for South African Thriston Lawrence to win the tournament and for the Northern Irishman to finish 12th or worse. That looked ever less likely though after McIlroy opened with a 67 – of six birdies and a lone bogey – to Lawrence’s 73.
Indeed, McIlroy’s true target heading into the next three rounds would be to complete a double-whammy of crowning off his season’s work with a fourth win of the year (to add to the successes in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the Zurich Classic and the Wells Fargo) to go with the coveted Harry Vardon Trophy.
McIlroy, who lived in the UAE for four years at the start of his professional career, certainly seemed very much at home. “I still have to go out and play very solid golf to get the job done but I have put myself in a position where I want to go on and win the tournament and end the season on a nice high,” he remarked, before providing a revealing insight with his thoughts on the possibility of the American players being paid to play in next year’s Ryder Cup.
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“I personally would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup. The two purest forms of competition in our game right now are the Ryder cup and the Olympics and it is probably because of the purity of no money being involved.
“I can see the other side of the argument because the Ryder Cup does create a lot of revenue, it is one of the top five biggest sporting events in the world so I get the argument that the talent should be or could be getting paid. But I just think the Ryder Cup is so much more than that especially to the Europeans and to this [DP World] tour,” said McIlroy, who suggested such payments would be better used in supporting other tournaments and the Challenge Tour.
He added: “I don’t think any of the European players [would want to be paid] ... I don’t want to say taint it but it would give it a different feel and I think that we have done a really good job in being this cohesive group over the past decade. Every two years there is a 104 weeks, or 103 weeks, you can play golf and get paid, you can say that one week out of 104 is reasonable enough. It won’t change anything on our side.”
Switching back to the state of his game and aiming to win the tournament and the order of merit title, McIlroy said: “I want to go on from here and win the golf tournament. I’ve opened up with a really good score but I need to go out and play similarly over these next three days, not just to try to win the tournament but also to try to get the job done in the Race to Dubai. I’m under no illusions that that was probably Thriston’s worst day. If he goes out and has three good onee, I still need to go out there and play some very solid golf.”
The two other Irish players in the field opened with 71s, with Tom McKibbin – who is battling to secure one of the 10 pathway cards to the PGA Tour – chipping in on the 18th hole for his fourth birdie of a round that was slightly blighted by a double-bogey five on the Par 3 fourth hole.
“That was a pretty good effort,” said McKibbin, adding: “I know I have to play well to try and sneak one of those spots ... it’s quite a nice thing knowing I have to go out and play well and earn it. I will give it my best the next few days.”
Lowry’s round featured two birdies and one bogey: “it looks like the scoring is not as good this year as it has been. The rough is pretty penal this year. Maybe that’s the difference. I felt like I played good enough to shoot sort of, you know, 67 or 66 but I burned the edge a lot early on, and then the hole got smaller from there ... onwards and upwards to tomorrow and try to shoot a decent number.”
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