Golf

Rory McIlroy finds motivation in legacy-building after roller-coaster season

Séamus Power will complete his season at the RSM Classic in South Carolina

Rory McIlroy poses with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy McIlroy. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty
Rory McIlroy poses with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy McIlroy. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty
Philip Reid
Mon Nov 18 2024 - 18:30

Legacy-building takes time, which – in Rory McIlroy’s case – is a commodity that remains very much on his side.

The 35-year-old Northern Irishman’s season may, in its own strange way, be remembered as much for failings as successes but the fact of the matter is that Rory McIlroy’s exploits – four wins worldwide which culminated in a sixth career win in the season-long DP World Tour order of merit for the Harry Vardon Trophy – provided yet more building blocks to add to his great career.

Whatever about his traumatic failure to close the deal at the US Open at Pinehurst in June as yet another year went by without adding to his four career Major titles, a drought that stretches back to his US PGA win in 2014, more than a decade in cruel time, McIlroy’s own template for success hasn’t altered.

As he put it after his latest win in Dubai, one which brought his total of professional wins on the many tours to 41, “I just want to be the best golfer that I can be. That’s what I’ve always wanted, and I’ve never knew where that would get me. But it’s got me pretty far. So it seems like a recipe that I should keep going with.

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“I think I do a good job of setting myself goals throughout the year, and I’m much better at setting, like, little short-term goals and trying to work my way through those, and then hopefully by the end of the year it sort of adds up to something bigger than that.

“As long as I’m feeling healthy and feeling like I have the game to compete at the highest level I’m going to try to get the best out of myself up until the point I feel like I’m no longer good enough to compete at the highest level. But I feel like that’s a very long way away!”

Rory McIlroy poses for a selfie with the DP World Tour Championship trophy on the 18th green. Photograph: Luke Walker/Getty
Rory McIlroy poses for a selfie with the DP World Tour Championship trophy on the 18th green. Photograph: Luke Walker/Getty

A season which started in the UAE – where he won the Dubai Desert Classic back in January – finished in the emirate with his latest DP World Tour championship win. It will start back there in January in a year where he will again go in that eternal quest to complete the career Grand Slam at the Masters in April and to seek further Majors in the US PGA (at Quail Hollow), the US Open (at Oakmont) and The Open (at Royal Portrush).

McIlroy has ridden a roller-coaster of emotions in the season just gone, yet his mental strength – as much as his pure swing – was evident down the stretch in fending off Rasmus Hojgaard to close the deal in his last competitive round of a year when he played 27 tournaments.

Of his ability to find motivation from within, McIlroy explained: “I’ve never been one to look externally for motivation. Sometimes, but for the most part, I think you need to find it within yourself, that motivation to go on and achieve what you want to do.

“I know how people are going to view my year, and I view my year similarly, but at the same time I still have to remember I won four times and I won a second Race to Dubai. I accumulated a lot of big finishes and big performances, and the two guys that had better years than me have had career years. Xander won two Majors, and Scottie has won a Players and a Masters and an Olympic Gold Medal. They are the only two guys this year that I think that have had better years than me.”

McIlroy will now put the clubs away until reappearing back in the UAE in the new year for what will be the start of another year – his 19th as a professional – where his legacy-building will continue.

Meanwhile, Séamus Power will complete his season at this week’s RSM Classic in South Carolina where the Waterford man looks set to finish in the all-important 51st-60th places on the FedEx Fall Series which will earn him places in next year’s Genesis Invitational and AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, two of the PGA Tour’s $20 million signature events.

“It’s a strange season because I’ve made improvements in areas of my game that I wanted to make improvements, but then like typical golf stuff, the stuff like my strengths before kind of went a little backwards. Ended up with positive stats across the board but no real highlight stuff,” said Power of a season devoid of a win. He has got one last chance to change that particular statistic.

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times