Rory McIlroy reveals goals for rest of year after Open disappointment
Rory McIlroy still has ambitions to win the season-ending Tour Championship and Race to Dubai after a disappointing end to this year’s majors.
Having successfully defended his Masters title in April, there has been a decline in results for McIlroy, who finished seventh at the US PGA before coming joint 32nd at the US Open and tied for 40th at The Open at Royal Birkdale.
The Northern Irishman is currently 11th in the FedExCup standings, which will be enough to get him into the PGA Tour’s finale at East Lake in Atlanta, and second in the Race to Dubai.
He admits he struggles to lift himself for regular events on the American circuit and he does not plan to play before next month’s first FedEx event, the St Jude Championship, a tournament he skipped last year, before turning his attention to the DP World Tour.
McIlroy is set to play in September’s Irish Open, the BMW Championship at Wentworth and the DP World India Championship before heading to the Middle East for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
“Obviously I’ll get back to playing and still in a decent position, I guess, in both title races,” he said.
“As long as I’m in the top 30 going into the Tour Championship and then I’m in a decent spot still in the Race to Dubai.
“So I try to play hard until the end of the season and then try to win one or both of those.”
With a higher number of events to come on the DP World Tour, McIlroy has no plans to change his schedule in order to meet the minimum requirement to be a member of the PGA Tour.
He made his 11th start on the tour at Birkdale, with a total of 15 required for continued membership.
McIlroy is a lifetime member courtesy of passing 20 PGA Tour wins, but the 12-start minimum for lifetime members does not become effective until the age of age 45. McIlroy is 37.
The six-time major winner said he had not had confirmation 14 events would suffice, but, as an international golfer, he can apply to the commissioner of the PGA Tour to reduce the tournament requirement from 15 to 12.
“I’ve really enjoyed my stretches of golf in Europe and going back to India again, the Middle East, Australia, I really enjoyed that part of the year last year and I’m looking forward to that again for sure,” he added.
“The PGA Tour is in a lot of flux at the minute with a lot of their schedule and structure and everything like that.
“The change where it doesn’t matter where you are in the top 30 going into the Tour Championship (there used to be a stroke advantage given to the top 10 players) means I just need to be in the top 30 (cut-off point) going in there to have a chance to win the FedExCup.”