As a reconnaissance mission by Rory McIlroy in advance of next year’s Ryder Cup, his visit to the Marco Simone course for the Italian Open – even if another win for the season evaded him – could be deemed a success, on a number of fronts.
Firstly, that he has mapped out the course and how it suits his game; and, secondly, perhaps more importantly, there was yet more evidence that he’s in great form as he aims to add the Race to Dubai title to his FedEx Cup win on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy’s fourth-placed finish behind Bob MacIntyre was his fourth straight top-10 and third top-five in a run of tournaments on either side of the Atlantic since missing the cut at the St Jude tournament. As if to underpin the world number two’s form this year, that missed cut in Memphis was the only one in 19 tournaments through 2023, in a formline that has seen two wins, two runners-up, two third-placed finishes and a further six between fourth and 10th.
In taking a week out from tournament play this week, bypassing the French Open in Paris, McIlroy will resume playing duty at next week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship – which takes place at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns – as he aims to consolidate his position atop the DP World Tour order of merit.
McIlroy has also closed the gap on world number one Scottie Scheffler – who spearheads the United States team in the Presidents Cup against an underdog Internationals team at Quail Hollow this week – and could conceivably regain the top ranking in the official world rankings at the Dunhill while Cameron Smith, the world number three, is going backwards after defecting to LIV.
However, after his win in the LIV tournament in Chicago, where there were no world ranking points, the Australian observed: “I think for all the guys on the [LIV] tour, it would mean a lot to get world ranking points. There’s a lot on the line with the ranking points, getting into Majors, stuff like that. There field [in LIV] is strong enough and deep enough to where it warrants [world ranking points] and hopefully it’s soon.”
These are early days yet in the European Ryder Cup standings but MacIntyre has moved into an automatic qualifying spot with his win in Italy. Shane Lowry, McIlroy and MacIntyre (all three will be playing in the Dunhill after skipping France) currently head the standings of the European points list, with Danny Willett, Jon Rahm and Matt Fitzpatrick occupying the three spots of the world points list.
MacIntyre headed back home to the west coast of Scotland for a week’s R&R and some celebrations after his second European Tour win but admitted his goal for the next year is to make Luke Donald’s team.
“The golf course is tough. You’ve got to drive it well and you’ve got to do everything well . . . I’m playing on the golf course the Ryder Cup is going to be held and going against some of the best players in the world, but there is still a long, long way to go and I’ve started off [the qualifying] in perfect fashion. I can’t think of a better way for it to start than winning.”
This week’s tour stop is the French Open at Golf National in Paris, the venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup, where there are three Irish players – Jonny Caldwell, Cormac Sharvin and Niall Kearney – in the field in the €3 million purse tournament.
The Swiss Challenge takes place in Folgensburg, France, where Tom McKibbin – who maintained his strong push for a full DP World Tour card for next season with a tied-13th finish in Portugal – is among a strong Irish challenge that also features John Murphy, Conor Purcell, Ruaidhrí McGee, David Carey, Robin Dawson, Gary Hurley and Gavin Moynihan.
