Rory McIlroy will look to put last week’s disappointment in Dubai firmly in the past with victory in the star-studded Omega Mission Hills World Cup, representing Ireland alongside Ryder Cup star Graeme McDowell.
The 20-year-old missed out on the inaugural Race to Dubai last week as Lee Westwood was in unstoppable form to win the season-ending Dubai World Championship to top the Order of Merit despite McIlroy’s best efforts of four sub-70 rounds.
But the new world number 10 has a chance to end the year on a high by coming out on top of defending champions Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson of Sweden, Spain led by Sergio Garcia and a strong England pairing of Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher after four days of alternating foursomes and fourballs.
“It is very easy to stay motivated at the end of the year. I want to play the best I can for my partner, I don’t want to let him down.
“Obviously we are playing for our country, which is a huge honour. I don’t think there would be any reason why you wouldn’t be motivated,” said McIlroy.
“It’s a new challenge for me. Graeme has played at Mission Hills before and I’m really looking forward to it.
“It’s my first taste of the World Cup and I don’t think there should be any reason why I shouldn’t be motivated.
“I’m going to go out there and give it my best shot and it would be a great title to win.”
McIlroy and McDowell, who made his first Ryder Cup appearance last year, teamed up to win three out of four matches in September as Great Britain and Ireland won the Vivendi Trophy.
“There’s a lot of good teams this week, but we know we are one of the favourites coming in,” said 30-year-old McDowell, who finished 16th last year with Paul McGinley.
“Obviously you have no given right to be competing this week. You’ve still got to go out and play golf, and we are going to focus hard on the right attitude and go out and try and have a good time at the weekend.
“It says a lot about Rory, to be able to get himself up for this week. He’s obviously disappointed from last week, but I know we’ll get on well this week and I know we’ll have a good time.
“We are both playing great golf, so it’s just a matter of going out there and doing it and keeping the energy levels going.”
World number seven and Players Championship winner Stenson and Karlsson won a second World Cup title for Sweden last year with a scintillating nine-under-par 63 in the final round foursomes to comfortably win by three strokes.
World number eight Garcia teams up with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano looking to improve on Spain’s runner-up finish 12 months ago, while Singapore Open champion Poulter and Volvo World Match Play Championship winner Fisher claimed sixth last year.
Martin Kaymer leads the Germany challenge with Soren Hansen and Soren Kjeldsen teaming up for Denmark, while US PGA Championship winner YE Yang represents South Korea.
McDowell added: “It would mean a lot to win on Sunday. It’s one of the special tournaments in golf.
“We play a lot of individual golf, but getting a chance to play with a partner and representing your country and some of the great champions that have won this tournament, it would be a special feeling.
“It is a great chance to experience being in the hunt coming down the stretch with a partner, and sharing that experience will be pretty cool.”
