Race to Dubai rival Sergio Garcia has waved a virtual white flag declaring Rory McIlroy’s brilliant season is deserving of a second Race to Dubai victory crown in three years.
In the absence of McIlroy this week in Turkey, Garcia can still unseat the four-time Major winner by capturing the Turkish Airlines Open but the Spaniard, who is currently ranked third on the money list, would also need to succeed in next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
It is the same scenario for the second placed Jamie Donaldson and Germany’s Marcel Siem lying fourth on the Race to Dubai.
However Garcia, who is competing for a first time in Turkey, has sounded McIlroy’s praise ahead of the $US 7m event.
Spaniard Sergio Garcia bows to Rory McIlroy’s brilliant season. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
“I’m a big believer if you have done something extraordinary to be able to achieve that, and to win the Race to Dubai before the last tournament is played, why shouldn’t you be the winner?” said Garcia.
“Rory has done something quite extraordinary this season and this summer, and he deserves to be the Race to Dubai Champion, even before we play the Dubai World Championship next week.”
And it’s a view shared by Lee Westwood, who was crowned European Number One in 2000 and 2009.
“If you look at Rory’s season, he’s won two major championships, a World Golf Championship, and our Flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, which is a phenomenal year,” said Westwood.
“If you put that up in somebody’s career, those four tournaments that would a good career, and Rory’s achieved that in six months, basically.”
And unlike the make-up of the FedEx Cup Play Off Series that saw unsung Billy Horschel scoop all the awards to end the year as No. 1 and with McIlroy settling for third, Westwood says there is no need for the Tour to alter the current Race to Dubai goal posts.
“I’ve looked at the PGA Tour over the last few years and it just seems that whoever win the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship wins the FedEx Cup, and if we go down that path we are into copying the PGA Tour again and copying the FedEx Cup,” he said.
“So I have no problems with the Race to Dubai being over before the final event, given this year with what Rory has done.”
