Rory McIlroy has set himself the goal of winning two of his closing three events this season to rescue a ‘lost season’.
The four-time Major winner won twice earlier this year in capturing the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the WGC – Cadillac Match-Play Championship.
However his heavily-publicised ankle injury ruined chances for McIlroy to capture a fifth Major.
McIlroy is competing in only his 10th Race to Dubai event at this week’s Turkish Airlines Open after being given special allowance by the European Tour to maintain full membership for 2016 and this despite the fact McIlroy will play one less than the maximum of 13 events.
In fact, McIlroy will play a dozen events given he has entered next week’s WGC – HSBC Champions event in Shanghai and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
McIlroy is making a first appearance in the Turkish Airlines Open after having been among those who helped christened the event with the staging in 2012 of the Turkish Airlines Invitation World Final at the nearby Antalya Golf Club.
Rory McIlroy looks to end his season on a high winning two of his three final events.
Though foremost on McIlroy’s mind is winning two of his closing three events that would hand him a third European No. 1 title.
“That’s what I can get out of it is just trying to finish the season off well as I’d like to, obviously like to win The Race to Dubai,” he said.
“So I would like to win at least one of these last three events that I’m playing and that would — it would make me feel better about the end of the year, from whenever it was, when I injured my ankle, to the start of July.
“If I was to go from then to the end of the season without another win, especially with how I was playing up until that point, it would be very disappointing.
“So I’ve got three opportunities coming up to try and get a win or two on the board and end this year on a positive and head into next year with a bit of momentum.
“It also would mean an awful lot to win a third Race to Dubai title. I had a great chance back in 2009 to win and didn’t quite; Lee pipped me there. Had a great season in 2012 and was able to win. Probably one of the best finishes I’ve had in a golf tournament, finished with five birdies in Dubai to win the tournament and win the overall thing.
“And then last year, it would have been nice to, I felt I was playing well enough to win the tournament and win The Race to Dubai again and didn’t quite do that. But yeah, it would mean an awful lot; to win The Race to Dubai for the third time would be a great achievement and that’s obviously what I’m trying to do the next few weeks.”
