McIlroy eyes end-of-season title and happy he's 'out of all the political stuff in golf'

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The Masters to complete the career Grand Slam. A home Irish Open. An away Ryder Cup.

It has been a year of unforgettable, career-defining wins for Rory McIlroy. There's a good chance it will get even better in Dubai this week in the Northern Irishman's final event of the 2025 season.

The No. 2-ranked McIlroy will look to be crowned Europe's No. 1 player for a fourth straight year when he competes in the European tour's season-ending World Tour Championship starting on Thursday.

If McIlroy holds off Marco Penge and Tyrrell Hatton — the only players in range of overhauling him — he will win the Race to Dubai title for the seventh time in his career and move within one of Colin Montgomerie's record haul.

Montgomerie won his season-long points titles — when it was called the Order of Merit — each year from 1993-99 and again in 2005.

McIlroy is tied on six with the late Seve Ballesteros, and remains committed to tailoring his schedule so he can play as many events on the European tour as possible while also working the PGA Tour calendar.

“There’s a wonderful heritage to this tour. I think with the fractured nature of the men’s professional game at the minute, this tour needs all of its stars to step up and play in the big events,” McIlroy said.

“I understand that I am one of those people and I want to do my utmost to help in whatever way that I can.”

McIlroy said he was the happiest he has felt in a long time, on and off the golf course. He attributes some of that to stepping away from the wrangling at boardroom level brought about by the emergence of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf breakaway circuit.

From being the face of strident anti-LIV criticism, McIlroy is back to being just a golfer.

“I have a clear head and I’m out of all the political stuff in golf, basically, and I can just focus on playing and playing where I want to and making myself competitively happy by playing in the tournaments that I want to play,” he said.

“And then having more time to make myself personally happy with doing the things I want to do away from golf. Travelling with my family and showing my daughter different parts of the world and doing things like that I think is a very nice place to be in life.”

McIlroy leads the Race to Dubai standings. He is around 767 points ahead of second-placed Penge and around 1,720 points ahead of third-placed Hatton. There are 2,000 points on offer for the winner at the Earth Course.

A win obviously guarantees McIlroy the title, as would finishing second alone.

For Penge — a three-time winner on the tour this year — to overhaul McIlroy he either needs to win and hope McIlroy finishes worse than second alone, or finish in a tie for second and for McIlroy to be down the leaderboard.

Hatton needs to win to stand any chance of an unlikely title.

Penge's breakthrough season has already seen him lock down one of the PGA Tour cards on offer for the top 10 players in the Race to Dubai standings who are not otherwise exempt.

The next nine players currently in position are Kristoffer Reitan, John Parry, Adrien Saddier, Alex Noren, Laurie Canter, Li Haotong, Daniel Brown, Keita Nakajima and Jordan Smith.

The European tour announced on Tuesday a new trophy — the Rory McIlroy Award — which will be presented to the player who performs best across all four majors in a season.

The inaugural award will be handed out next season and is in honor of McIlroy being the first European to complete the career Grand Slam.

“To have something named after you, that will be presented to future generations of players, is a huge honor and it is very humbling," said McIlroy, who has made himself ineligible to win the award.

“I hope,” he added, “my success can inspire other DP World Tour members to chase and achieve their own dreams for years to come.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf