It’s Rory McIlroy time.
There’s huge money on the line and Rory’s no stranger to huge paydays (see 2019 FedEx Cup winner).
This is the 2019 season finale for the European Tour — the DP World Tour Championship starting Thursday where the winner will walk away with a jaw-dropping $3,000,000.
Three m-m-m-million dollars? Now that’s sure enough to piss off The Sheriff Of Nottingham (aka PGA Tour commish Jay Monahan). It’s bigger — a bigger payoff than ANY PGA Tour event and The Sheriff is probably already on the phone to FedEx asking the corporate moguls there to pony up even more cash for next year.
Three m-m-m-million is enough to get any player’s attention and no doubt it has Rory’s.
Rory’s got a great track record in Dubai. In his early years the Jumeirah Golf Estates were one of his sponsors and he knows that Earth course extremely well. This will also be Rory’s swan song for 2019 — he’s going to take two months off after this week to basically have some fun and relax. He’s earned it.
That $3,000,000 also overshadows the Bonus Pool for the Race To Dubai top five. And those are the only guys who get a piece. Unlike the FedEx Cup money which pays everyone who makes it to the Tour Championship, the Race breaks down to just five — $2,000,000 to the winner, $1,200,000 the runner-up, $700,000 to third, $600,000 to fourth and a measly half-million to No. 5.
Rory’s been eliminated from winning The Race. He’s sixth going into this week behind No. 1 Bernd Wiesberger, No. 2 Tommy Fleetwood, No. 3 Jon Rahm, No. 4 Shane Lowry and young Matt Fitzpatrick, who squeaked in at No. 5.
Doesn’t matter, the three m-m-m-million should get the best from Rory.
There’s one new face in the McIlroy camp for this event. McIlroy’s regular caddie — Harry Diamond, has the week off after his wife, Claire, gave birth to the couple’s first child on Nov. 11. In Diamond’s place is another of McIlroy’s longtime friends, Niall O’Connor, a former international rugby player.
O’Connor at least has some experience carrying the bag for a member of the McIlroy family — he caddied Rory’s dad, Gerry, at the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
With Rory’s experience and track record in Dubai, it doesn’t matter who’s on the bag. He’s coming in off victory in his last appearance — the HSBC Champions where Rory became the first player from Europe to put three WGC titles on his resume.
A win this week would fatten his already huge bank account but it would set the table for what could be a great season in 2020 as he pulls closer to that No. 1 ranking currently being held by inactive Brooks Koepka, who is rehabbing a knee injury.
“I’m trying to,” McIlroy said of his push to overtake Koepka. “I’m still a little behind, I think, but I’m getting there. This win definitely helps,” he said after the HSBC, “and if I can get another win by the end of the year I’ll be feeling pretty good going into 2020.”
He’ll have a chance for “another win” starting Thursday. Tough field, very playable course.
No, Rory can’t win The Race To Dubai but there will be thousands showing up to watch him this week and they don’t care.
Breaking News: The European Tour has cancelled next week’s Hong Kong Open. It was supposed to mark the start of the 2019-2020 season for the European Tour but it’s been called off due to the civil unrest in the city. Keith Pelley, head honcho for the European Tour cited safety concerns for players and staff as the reason for the cancellation.
