RORY MCILROY ADMITS the new-look European Tour is unlikely to spark a major change in his schedule as he defended Jon Rahm’s decision to miss the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
The European Tour will be known as the DP World Tour from the start of the 2022 season next week and boasts total prize money of more than €176 million ($200m) for the first time.
The lucrative Rolex Series expands from four tournaments to five and the DP World Tour Championship will have a prize fund of €8.8m ($10m), the first regular European Tour event with an eight-figure purse.
But with similar figures commonplace across the Atlantic, Florida-based McIlroy will continue to focus on the PGA Tour, where he overcame struggling with his game to win twice in what he described as a season of “exploration and learning”.
“I live in America. That’s where I’m going to play the majority of my golf,” McIlroy said. “I just think it’s a great thing for this Tour that the members that play on this Tour full-time have a place to play long into the future.
“But for me personally, I think I’m just going to play the same schedule that I’ve basically played for the last sort of five years. It may encourage me to add an event here or there, (but) for the most part I’ll probably keep doing what I’ve done the last few years.”
McIlroy missed the DP World Tour Championship last year and this week’s event will be without world number one Rahm, even though he had the chance to win the Race to Dubai for the second time in three years.
The US Open champion cited the demands of a long season for his absence and McIlroy said: “I fully understand. He just won his first major this year, he’s had his first child, he won this thing the year before last.
“He’s given his all all year. He’s had his trials and tribulations as well. He was an absolute star at the Ryder Cup for us. He couldn’t have given more and he’s given a lot to the European Tour already.
“He goes to Spain and plays those events there in his home country. I don’t think anyone can criticise him for not being here this week.”
Rahm’s absence means six players can win the Race to Dubai title at Jumeirah Golf Estates, with Open champion Collin Morikawa and Billy Horschel in line to become the first Americans to do so.
Victory for either pacesetter Morikawa or second-placed Horschel would guarantee them the title, while Tyrrell Hatton, Min Woo Lee, Paul Casey and Matt Fitzpatrick need to win and see other results go their way to come out on top.
2 McIlroys. A and B and flips and flops to suit himself and the circumstances. Would prefer if he just said the big money and attention is still in the US rather than skirt around the obvious!
@David Gaffney: But that is what he is saying. He lives in the state’s cause that’s where the money is and he’s never made a secret of that. He’s saying as good as the changes to the European tour are, they aren’t enough to entice the top players to change what they are doing. It’s overtly implied it what he said. Just cause he doesn’t blatantly state it doesn’t mean he’s skirting the question
@Phil Redmond:
Married to an American, his family is in America… The bggest payouts are in America… Totally understandable…
Shane is in the same boat… To play in the top competitions you have to play in the highest ranking tournaments…
@Cowboy Paddy: Exactly and the European tour events need to get much closer to the PGA in terms of prize money and ranking points if they want to start attracting the top players away from it. I doubt that will ever happen though. The PGA want to protect their place as the no 1 tour like anyone in their position would so any sign that the European tour are going to make any significant inroads into that they’ll up the prize money and keep the top players coming back to them
@Phil Redmond: it absolutely does mean he is skirting around it! Why not just say it. Why talk like a politician that is evasive and won’t commit!?
@David Gaffney: Non committal choker and mercenary. #136daystillmoreRorycomedygold