Rory McIlroy didn’t waste too much time in swapping the golf course for the tennis court after completing his final round of the Tour Championship, sitting in the stands – with caddie Harry Diamond – at the US Open in New York just a couple of hours after finishing up his PGA Tour season in Atlanta.
For the world number two, though, there is no thought of putting away his clubs for too long. The Ryder Cup is to the fore of all those players expecting to be in Bethpage for next month’s match, where Europe will seek to defend the trophy against the United States, but for McIlroy a busy two weeks lie ahead with an even busier time post-Ryder Cup leaving a lot yet to play for in the year.
“[The Amgen Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship] are two big weeks for me to try to extend my lead in the Race to Dubai. That’s become a pretty important thing for me. I’m chasing a little bit of history there. I want to put my head down and play well those couple weeks.
“They’re sort of like two home tournaments for me, Ireland being my national open, and then we live pretty much on the course at Wentworth. [So] a big couple weeks to try to play well but also sharpen up different aspects of the game going into the Ryder Cup,” said McIlroy who has also committed to playing the Hero Indian Open in October ahead of chasing down a seventh European Tour order of merit, closing in on Colin Montgomerie’s record eight titles.
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Of his game, McIlroy – who finished tied-23rd in the Tour Championship, all of 12 strokes behind popular first-time PGA Tour winner Tommy Fleetwood – claimed: “The things that I wanted to improve on this week, I did ... my game feels close. It certainly isn’t far away!”
McIlroy, who topped the European Ryder Cup qualifying, was joined by Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard and Tyrrell Hatton when that process finished with Sunday’s British Masters. Captain Luke Donald will complete the six remaining players with his wild card picks next Monday, September 1st.
Of those looking to catch Donald’s eye in making a late impression, Matt Fitzpatrick and Matt Wallace are competing in this week’s Omega European Masters in Crans, Switzerland. The Hojgaard twins are also playing, Rasmus safe in the knowledge that he has earned his ticket to New York and Nicolai – like the two Matts – looking to impress Donald.
The form of the six players who earned automatic places on Donald’s team make for a great deal of positivity headed into the Bethpage cauldron, with Fleetwood finally getting the deal done in some style in winning the Tour Championship (and its $10 million winner’s cheque) to join recent winners on the PGA Tour, MacIntyre and Rose.
In reality, there would seem to be only one spare pick at Donald’s disposal with Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Sepp Straka appearing to be locked in.
After playing all three of the FedEx Cup playoffs, Lowry has a week’s break before, like McIlroy, teeing it up at The K Club next week and Wentworth the following week and, although reliant on a captain’s pick for the third time, entitled to have the Ryder Cup on his radar after those commitments.
The field for next week’s Amgen Irish Open at The K Club is shaping up nicely, with a number of PGA Tour players – among them Jhonattan Vegas and Erik Van Rooyen – and some LIV golfers, including Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed, among the advance entries.
Rasmus Hojgaard defends an Irish Open title he won in Royal Co Down last year and the Dane will, by the time he gets to Bethpage, have played more golf than anyone in the run-up having started a five-week stretch at the Danish Championship that will run up to and including Wentworth.
