Rory McIlroy looks on with temporary caddie Niall O’Connor during practice prior to the DP World Tour Championship Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates on November 19, 2019, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

By Kent Gray
Rory McIlroy has no fear a fill-in caddie will hamper his chances of winning the DP World Tour Championship for a third time in eight years, insisting he is so familiar with Jumeirah Golf Estates he could “almost play it blind-folded”.

With regular bagman Harry Diamond taking the week off after his wife, Claire, gave birth to the couple’s first child on Nov.11, former Ireland A rugby international Niall O’Connor will do the heavy lifting for the in-form world No.2 around Earth this week.

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McIlroy took up 2019-2020 European Tour status too late in the season to give himself a shot at the overall Race to Dubai title but comes into the week fresh from his WGC-HSBC Champions triumph in Shanghai earlier in the month and with a shot to match his career-best five wins from 2012.

While looking and sounding jaded in his pre-tournament press conference as he eyes his 25th and last start of a stellar, restorative year which has included winning the FedEx Cup (and $15 million) for the second time, McIlroy believes he has enough in the tank to finish 2019 in style. He also knows from previous experience that he can free-wheel it around Earth where he won the DPWTC in 2012 and 2015 and sealed the overall R2D title back-to-back in 2014-2015.

“I’ve been coming back here for 10 years, yeah, I know the place like the back of my hand,” McIlroy said.

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“Obviously I’ll maybe take on a little bit more responsibility than I usually do and jot stuff down. It feels a little bit like when Harry first came on the bag a couple years ago, right. I took on a little more responsibility writing stuff in my yardage book and pacing stuff out. I actually quite enjoy that part, as well.”

Retired fly-half O’Connor, 32, is a useful amateur golfer himself and caddied for Rory’s father, Gerry, at the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“Niall and I go back a long way, so yeah, for me at this point it’s just about trying to stay as relaxed and as loose as possible out there and he can definitely do that for me.”

“Obviously Niall has been, you know, I guess he’s got a few international A [rugby] caps for Ireland, played for Ulster a lot of times. Yeah, he knows what it feels like in the heat of the battle.

“I think the other thing, he’s a pretty good golfer himself. He’s played a lot of amateur tournaments in Ireland, so he knows the game well, and he knows what it’s like, how that feels to be in the heat of battle and be under pressure and all that.

“So, as I said, it will be fun to be out there with him this week, and it’s a change of pace for both of us. He’s obviously stuck in an office in New York most days, and yeah, so it will be fun. It will be a great experience for both of us, and you know, as long as I stay loose and relaxed out there, that’s the most important thing.”