Rory McIlroy walking on to the 7th tee during the Pro-Am prior to the DP World Tour Championship Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates on November 19, 2019, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
Rory McIlroy is clearly keen on another Dubai title heist before getting out of Dodge as quickly as possible.

Answering questions before they’d been fully solicited and displaying the at times disinterested body language of a man clearly ready for the two-month break that will follow this week’s DP World Tour Championship, McIlroy’s habitual honesty was in full flow in his press conference ahead of this week’s Race to Dubai decider.

“Is there any sense of frustration…”

“No” came the world No.2’s abrupt response, and stifled laughter, to an early question that he clearly saw coming.

No, McIlroy doesn’t regret not renewing his European Tour membership until after he finished second at the WGC-Mexico Championship in Feb. and T-9 (for a round of 16 exit) at the WGC- Dell Technologies Matchplay the following month, wasted ranking points that would have made him a genuine contender for the overall Race to Dubai title this week.

“I’ve earned enough money this year.  I’m fine. I mean, again, it wasn’t on my radar at the start of the year [becoming European No.1 again]. It wasn’t on my radar going into China, even.“

McIlroy’s victory at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai earlier this month was his fourth in a season which also saw him scoop $15 million for clinching his second FedEx Cup title. Yes, he is doing just fine financially, if you were wondering.

It doesn’t mean he isn’t hungry to win the DPWTC for the third time in eight years for what would be a fifth title to match his career-best title haul from 2012.

“I’ve still got a chance to win this tournament, and that’s important to me. That’s enough for me to be here. “

Dodge City, to tie in the opening reference, was the clichéd setting of cowboy and western films from the early to mid-1900s. For modern context, switch out Kansas and insert Dubai. It’s not that McIlroy doesn’t love the emirate where he once lived, it’s just that he can’t wait to see the end of another long season.

Maybe also, though definitely unspoken nowadays, there is still thinly-veiled bad blood with the European Tour powerbrokers who have ridden into town this week from Wentworth.

It didn’t stop another reporter from pressing for an answer as to whether McIlroy, sixth in the standings coming into the week, was disappointed he couldn’t win the season outright like he did on the PGA Tour.

“No. I’ve won it three times,” the 30-year-old said. “It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to do it, but I just haven’t played enough European Tour events. You look at someone like a Bernd Wiesberger that’s played 25, 26, 27 times, whatever it is. You know, those are the guys that deserve to be up there with a chance to win.”

Tom Dulat/Getty Images

Another reported later asked why McIlroy reportedly didn’t write down his season goals like he famously once did on the back of an airline ticket. The Northern Irishman retorted that he in fact still did.

Just “Not on the back of the plane tickets?”  “No, I don’t need plane tickets anymore, thank god.”

No, you don’t need even a first-class ticket when you can fly private courtesy of stats like McIlroy’s top-10 ratio this past year, a scarcely believable 75 percent.

What McIlroy did jot down on his to-do list this year was a goal to improve his putting.

“At the start of the year I wanted to be plus .25 strokes gained putting for the year.  I nearly doubled that.  I was nearly .5 strokes gained putting for the year, which is a massive improvement.

“For me, there’s no point in writing a goal down, like I want 75 percent Top 10s, because how do you that, is by improving little aspects in your game.  You know, putting within 12 feet or more sand saves or improving your bunker play or improving inside 75 yards.  Those are the things that add up to Top 10s and wins and getting yourself in contention all the time. 

“I had my best putting year ever this year.  You know, 2012  or 2014, I think it was the first year I ever finished in the Top 50 in strokes gained putting.  This year I finished in the Top 25.  So if I can continue to be in the Top 25 putters on Tour going forward, that’s a huge thing for me. “

In his current mood, don’t be surprised to see McIlroy continue rolling in the putts on Earth this week and then rolling out of Dodge just as smoothly.