McIlroy eyes Tour victory and spot in Dubai finale
FORMER world No1 Rory McIlroy is confident of building on yesterday’s first win of 2013 in the coming weeks and ensuring his place in the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai.
The Northern Irishman defeated world No1 Tiger Woods by one shot in an 18-hole exhibition at Mission Hills in China to taste success for the first time in 12 months.
McIlroy still awaits victory on the European Tour this year though, and is in danger of missing out on a place in the season finale, currently lying two places outside of the top 60 qualification spots in the Race to Dubai.
But with the 24-year-old displaying signs of his best form at the recent Korea Open and last week’s BMW Masters in Shanghai, he goes into this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions tournament believing that elusive win is set to come.
“I still have four tournaments left until the end of the season and I would love to finish 2013 strongly and get a little bit of momentum going,” said McIlroy. “I’ve seen a lot of promising signs over the past few weeks in practice and also in competitive play.
“I’m hitting the ball well. Tee to green, the game was very solid [at Mission Hills] and if I can just get the putter going a little bit more and get a few more putts to drop then in these last four tournaments I can hope to contend and maybe pick up a win or two.”