With a third and fourth-place finish in just three starts, Rory McIlroy takes the next step in his fledging career as a professional when he tees it up at the Portugal Masters in Vilamoura tomorrow.
McIlroy, with no need to worry about the qualifying school as a result of his earnings to date, is in a field containing Ryder Cup quintet Lee Westwood, David Howell, Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke and Robert Karlsson and world number nine Retief Goosen.
Amazingly, at 95th on the Order of Merit McIlroy is already above his mentor Clarke (129th) and Howell (136th) and at seventh in the Ryder Cup standings he is above all of them.
"Obviously I'm not focused on the Ryder Cup at the minute. That's not a huge goal of mine because I have 20 more years to play Ryder Cups," said the Co Down teenager, who has another chance this week to be the youngest winner in Tour history.
One player McIlroy might not face at the Oceanico Victoria is Justin Rose, who has suffered another back injury on the eve of the event which he hopes will see him top of the European Order of Merit.
The 27-year-old needs to finish first or second to overhaul Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington. But he pulled out of today's pro-am as a precaution, after his back flared up while he was visiting his chiropractor on Saturday.
Earlier this season - either side of his fifth-place finish in The Masters at Augusta - Rose required two six-week lay-offs, and he said: "I have a weakness, as simple as that. I couldn't get off the table for five minutes when it happened, but I couldn't have been in a better place. He could piece me together again.
"I anticipate being okay tomorrow. I made good progress on Sunday and Monday, and when I went for a check-up on Tuesday he said it looks good."
Because he has divided his time between America and Europe this year, Rose still has to play two more events on this side of the Atlantic to reach the 11 required for Tour membership.
Those two are this week and the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama in November, but if he cannot play tomorrow he would have to divert to next week's Majorca Classic or drop out of the Order of Merit table.
An alternative would be to hit one shot in tomorrow's first round and then retire, but Rose said: "I'm not interested in doing that just to get my number in. That's not what I am about."
Nor does he intend to take pain-killing tablets.
"It's important to feel what's going on," he stated.
Els is not playing any more counting events, while Harrington has only the Volvo Masters planned.
