Rory McIlroy motivated to keep pace with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele
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Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy has two victories and seven top-10 finishes this season.
PHOTO: AFP
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DUBAI – Two victories, seven top-10 finishes, nearly US$11 million (S$14.8 million) in earnings on the PGA Tour this season – and the inside track to winning the Race to Dubai – would overwhelmingly please most people.
Rory McIlroy is not one of them.
Speaking on Nov 13 before the start of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, where he can capture a third straight Race to Dubai title on Nov 17, he said he left unfinished business on the course in 2024.
And that starts with the US Open at Pinehurst in June, where two missed short putts on the final three holes left him as the runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau.
McIlroy was seeking his first win in a Major since 2014. In looking back at his season, he saw good and bad – consistency and missed opportunities.
“Yeah, incredibly consistent again. I think I’ve been really proud of that over the last few years,” the Northern Irishman said at Dubai’s Jumeirah Golf Estates. “But then at the same time, you know, thinking about the ones that got away.
“I could be sitting up here with a fifth Major title and I am not. So that stings and that’s something that I have to come to terms with but at the same time I’ve got plenty more opportunities in the future.”
McIlroy sits third in the world rankings, and there is no doubt part of his drive for 2025 will be to reach the heights set by No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 2 Xander Schauffele this season.
“You’ve got two guys at the top of the world rankings down there winning Majors,” he added.
“You know, Scottie winning a Masters and a Players and the Olympics (while Schauffele won the PGA Championship and British Open this season). They certainly separated themselves from the pack this year.
“It only makes me more motivated to try to emulate what they did this year.”
But he will be more selective about the events he plays in the United States in 2025.
“There were a few events this year in America that I played that I don’t typically play, that’s where I’m going to have to trim a little bit,” he said.
“I’m 35 now. I just have to take care of my body a little bit more,” said McIlroy, who was tied at the top of the leaderboard on five-under 67 with Tyrrell Hatton after the first round of the DP World Tour Championship on Nov 14, with Paul Waring just a shot adrift.
In other news, it appears members of the United States’ 2025 Ryder Cup team will have another incentive when teeing off against McIlroy and his European counterparts at Bethpage Black in New York.
According to a report in The Telegraph on Nov 13, US players competing at the event will get roughly US$400,000 apiece.
The pay structure, according to The Telegraph, would be similar to that of the Presidents Cup in September – a stipend as opposed to a contribution made to the charity of each golfer’s choice.
However, there are two primary differences between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup.
First, the amount. The Presidents Cup stipend was US$250,000.
Second, who is getting paid. While players and captains for both teams were paid at the Presidents Cup in Montreal, the European Ryder Cup golfers will not get paid.
Talk of Americans getting paid for the Ryder Cup has been brewing for decades. Tiger Woods previously voiced his opinion on players not being paid despite the event raking in several million dollars.
Pay-for-play at the Ryder Cup became a hot-button topic during the 2023 event after American Patrick Cantlay did not wear a team hat – reportedly as a protest for players not being paid.
Said one anonymous European player to The Telegraph: “(The Americans) can do whatever they want. But we don’t want payments in our bank accounts, as it is not what the Ryder Cup is about.” REUTERS, AFP
