Rory McIlroy secured his best European Tour finish this year to guarantee his defence of his season-ending DP World Tour Championship with his share of sixth place at 15-under par jumping 24 spots from outside the top-60 at 62nd to 38th position and easily cement his place in the Race to Dubai finale.
Despite competing in last year’s Turkish Airlines Invitational McIlroy also will join fellow Ulsterman and US Open winner Graeme McDowell in not travelling to Balek.
Rory McIlroy secures his best European Tour finish this season and cements is place in the DP World Tour Championship. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
However as it began raining near the end of play in Shanghai, McIlroy was uncertain where he will take shelter this week.
“I know I am going to take a week off but standing here I actually don’t know where I am going to go,” said McIlroy.
“What I do know is that I came here to Shanghai for these two weeks never really doubting I wouldn’t qualify for Dubai and a good strong finish here in the HSBC has made sure of that.
“Of course, it would have been nice to finish a little higher but to finish top-10 is not a bad week.
“But this week will be a week off and I won’t even think about hitting balls to the weekend as I then have three weeks in a row, on three different continents to end my season.”
