ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy can finish the season as the European Tour’s top player for the sixth time with victory at the Abu Dhabi Championship this week.
He will attempt to do so with a new swing.
McIlroy, ranked No. 3, said he had been hunkered down in a studio — first in Florida, then in New York — for three weeks, just hitting balls at a screen with a modified swing and without even looking the trajectory of his shots. .
He hadn’t liked the shape of his swing for a while, he said Wednesday, and he wanted a sturdier one that could hold up in the most pressure-filled moments, following a number of missed opportunities this season. The most notable came at the US Open in June, where he missed two putts into the 3-foot range on the final three holes on Sunday to pave the way for Bryson DeChambeau’s victory and extend McIlroy’s decade without a title major.
“The only way for me to make a change, or at least move in the right direction, with my swing was to lock myself in a studio and not see the ball fly for a while and concentrate entirely on the movement,” McIlroy said. said.
“It’s something,” he added, “just to make my golf swing more efficient, and then if it’s more efficient, then that means it won’t break as much under pressure. If I look back at my year, the only thing I would blame myself for is the fact that I had those chances to win.
McIlroy has won twice this year, at the Dubai Desert Classic and the Wells Fargo Championship, and has finished second four times, most recently at the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour.
It left the Northern Irishman frustrated but clearly clear in the Race to Dubai rankings which determine the best player of the year on the European tour. A victory in Abu Dhabi can seal the title and eliminate some suspense, at least for McIlroy, in the final event of the season, the World Tour Championship which takes place in Dubai next week.
“If I go out and win this week, obviously, you know, it makes next week a little boring,” the four-time major champion said. “But I won’t find it boring. It will be lovely.
A sixth Race to Dubai title – it used to be called the Order of Merit – would put McIlroy level with the late Seve Ballesteros on the all-time list and just two behind Colin Montgomerie, who has a record eight .
“I’m a European player,” McIlroy said. “I would like to be considered the most successful European of all time. Obviously the Race to Dubai wins would count for that, but also the major championships and hopefully I have a few more Ryder Cups ahead of me.
“So that’s something I’d like to (do). I think this is a very achievable goal over the next 10 years.