World No3 Rory McIlroy saluted his happy knack of rising to the occasion after he won the season-ending DP World Tour Championship yesterday to clinch his third Race To Dubai title in four years.
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Sullivan and McIlroy were going toe-to-toe in the final round, until the world number three rolled in four birdies in five holes to take a two stroke lead.
After 48 tournaments stretched across 27 different countries, the Race to Dubai and the 2015 European Tour season has come to an end. “I mean, it was 40 yards off line – just a horrendous golf shot”, McIlroy said.
Another win at the WGC Match Play Championship followed by a victory at the PGA Tour’s Quail Hollow Championship in May had McIlroy thinking big things heading to the U.S. Open, with a showdown looming at St. Andrews with Spieth – who had captured the year’s first two majors.
“Just to come up head-to-head with someone of Rory’s quality was absolutely awesome and something that will stick with me for a long time going forward”, Sullivan said. “I have to give a lot of credit to him”. “He really impresses me. He’s got all the shots”, McIlroy told RTE Sport. “Of all the goals I wrote down at the start of the season, this is the one I’ve achieved”.
Now he won’t have to limp off toward a new year, and instead can prance toward it, having replenished his storehouse of confidence in what now is officially a quest to reclaim from Jordan Spieth the No. 1 spot in the World Ranking.
This was the week Rory McIlroy reasserted his credentials as the deepest talent in golf, a player so gifted that when all the gears are engaged few can live with him. “I want to try and get healthy and get stronger again, get my body back, because I haven’t been able to do as much in the gym as I would have liked over the past few months”, McIlroy explained.
Sullivan, ranked 53 in the world, sunk an eight-foot birdie on the first after seeing McIlroy miss a 15-footer that ended just short.
South Africa’s Branden Grace shot 5-under 67 in the final round to finish third on 273.
Paul McGinley, Europe’s Ryder Cup-winning captain at Gleneagles in 2014, said: “His game is solid, his attitude is superb and I love his tenacious spirit”.
McIlroy finally got his nose in front by pitching to three feet to birdie the par-five 14th, the first of five holes he birdied in succession to lift the title and become European number one for the first time in 2012.
Danny Willett, who was runner-up to McIlroy before play began in the UAE, finished second in the Race to Dubai after a tied fourth finish on 13 under.
“For me, it’s about doing it on a more consistent basis and getting up there and trying to get in the last group with Rory more often”.
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“I tried to do the exact same thing (Sunday), hit the exact same shot”.
