Rory McIlroy is confident his breakthrough victory is just around the corner as he continues to impress in his first full year on the European Tour. The Holywood teenager has just broken into the world top 100 on the back of three top 10 finishes in his last four events and has already banked €627,835 in his rookie season to leave him 37th in the Order of Merit race.
He narrowly missed out on winning the European Masters last month, losing out in a play-off to Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin in Switzerland.
Speaking ahead of the Castello Masters, which gets underway in Spain tomorrow, McIlroy reflected on that setback but believes it is all part of the learning curve as a professional golfer.
"You have to learn how to lose before you can win. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that I didn't finish it off," he admitted. "I've had more ups than downs this season. I've achieved all my goals I set for myself... and hopefully a win is just around the corner."
McIlroy is one of four Irish golfers in the field for the €2 million event hosted by Sergio Garcia, with Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy also teeing it up at the Club de Campo del Mediterráneo near Valencia.
Garcia was brought up on the fairways and greens of the club, where his father, Victor, is the club professional and is expected to dominate an impressive field that also includes his Ryder Cup team-mates Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson.
Europe's vice-captain, José Maria Olazábal, the exciting Colombian Camilo Villegas and last week's European Tour champion Alvaro Quiros, who can expect a rousing reception from his home crowd after his victory in Portugal, also compete.
Villegas hinted today that he was considering playing the minimum 12 events to qualify as a 2009 European Tour player and admitted the lucrative "Race to Dubai" has turned the heads of a number of US Tour players, including Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh.
"Yes, it's crossed my mind," remarked the world number seven. "I like playing around the world and Europe seems a good spot. I am going to be playing a little bit more overseas so we'll see what happens.
"I can count on seven from the majors and the world golf events, so I could do it. I've always wanted to be a world player and playing both tours might be a good option so we'll see how the schedule all works and how we can handle everything.
"That's (the Race to Dubai) going to catch a lot players' attention and it will be nice to see some of the US guys come across the pond," added Villegas.
Meanwhile, Gareth Maybin's bid to claim the number one spot on the Challenge Tour got off to a fine start today, when the Ulsterman shot a four-under-par 67 on the opening day of the Grand Final event in Puglia, Italy.
Maybin, in fourth spot in the rankings, is tied for seventh position, two shots behind the leading pair of South African Branden Grace and Scotland's Greig Hutcheon.
The top 20 in the rankings at the end of the event will earn a full card on the European Tour next season.
Michael Hoey's attempts to move up from 28th position suffered a blow on the opening day after a two-over-par opening round of 73 left him in a tie for 41st position in the 45-man field.
Derry's Michael McGeady, who needs to win the event to earn a card, shot a level-par 71 for a share of 29th spot.
