Rory McIlroy edges closer to winning his SEVENTH Race to Dubai title after wrestling the day back on track amid bizarre missed putt
Even factoring for a missed putt that he could have kicked in with his left foot and one eye closed, Rory McIlroy is on the brink of winning a seventh Race to Dubai title after taking the lead at the DP World Tour Championship on Saturday.
The world No 2 carded a 68 at the Earth Course in Dubai to share top spot in the tournament on 13 under par with Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, the 26-year-old who only last season was earning his keep on the Challenger circuit.
While McIlroy will enter that final grouping on Sunday with a large psychological edge, the pressure on his shoulders comes from knowing no fewer than eight of his Ryder Cup team-mates are within three strokes of the summit on a bunched leaderboard.
That cohort of chasers is fronted by Tyrrell Hatton on 12 under, which presents that last plausible option of McIlroy losing out of the $2million prize that goes to the highest points scorer in the seasonal rankings.
And yet those chances of a reversal are slim indeed. For it to happen, Hatton would need to win the tournament and hope McIlroy falls into at least a share of eighth.
It is unlikely without being impossible, but based on the way McIlroy is playing in Dubai, safer bets would be placed on him collecting a seventh Race to Dubai crown, which would move him within one of Colin Montgomerie’s record. Marco Penge’s excellent race appears to be run – he needed to finish no lower than second but is currently tied 36th and nine shots off the lead.
Rory McIlroy is on the brink of a seventh Race to Dubai title after going joint-top on Saturday
The Northern Irishman carded a 68 at the Earth Course in Dubai despite missing an easy putt
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen is the underdog sharing top spot with McIlroy on 13 under par
McIlroy, who finished third in Abu Dhabi last week, said: ‘It would be an amazing way to end the season. I knew coming out here for these two weeks that I needed to play well. Marco wasn’t that far behind and obviously Tyrrell wasn’t that far behind either.
‘I played well when I needed to last week and I put myself in position to try to get another win here. So I am really pleased.
‘I certainly could have coasted into these couple of weeks and enjoyed myself but The Race to Dubai is important to me, and it’s important to me to try to get a little bit closer to Monty.
‘As I said, I’ve put myself in a great position to go and do that tomorrow.’
As for the tournament itself, which McIlroy has already won three times, there is the intrigue that comes from such a strong group of golfers in pursuit.
Matt Fitzpatrick loves this event and course, as shown by his wins in 2016 and 2020, and at 12 under he is joined by Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood, whose blemish-free 68 highlighted the reliable game of a man in career-best form – he has shot only two bogeys in his past 126 holes in the Middle East. A fourth Englishman, former LIV golfer Laurie Canter, is in the same tie for third. Their hopes will rely on recurrences of the blip on the second hole, when McIlroy missed from two feet to cancel out the birdie he hit on the first.
McIlroy cut a frustrated figure on the green before wrestling Saturday’s event back on track
McIlroy’s rivals are hoping that he will repeat the blips that halted his chances to extend a lead
The Northern Irishman would also birdie the seventh, though that was his only gain in a nine-hole stretch before McIlroy ignited with three in the final five holes, including an approach to nine feet from the wood chippings on the last.
Asked about the proximity of Hatton, McIlroy said: ‘I’m in a better position than him. I’m focused on myself.
‘If I go out and play the golf that I know I’m capable of, especially around this golf course, I know that it will be okay.’
