Chasing Third DP World Tour Title, Rory McIlroy Wants to Be Europe’s Best Ever

The Northern Irishman said he hasn't liked his swing “for a while” and made some tweaks as he chases down some of the greatest European golfers of all time.

Rory McIlroy is closing in on a sixth seasonlong title on the DP World Tour. / Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Rory McIlroy is already one of the greatest golfers ever—but he still has unfinished business.

“I would like to go down as the most successful European of all time,” he said Wednesday on the eve of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

McIlroy, ranked third in the world, is playing the DP World Tour’s final two events of the year as he chases his third straight Race to Dubai title. If the 35-year-old can clinch the DP World Tour’s season-long race, that will give him his sixth Harry Vardon Trophy, tying Seve Ballesteros for second-most all-time behind Colin Montgomerie’s eight.

“I’m very proud to be from Europe and have sort of played on this tour and played on this tour consistently," McIlroy said. “I just think of the greats of European golf that I grew up watching, whether it was [Nick] Faldo or (Ian Woosnam) or [Bernhard] Langer or just sort of the heyday of the European Tour in the ’90s.”

Thriston Lawrence, who’s a distant second in the points and playing with McIlroy during the first two rounds this week in Abu Dhabi, called the Northern Irishman “probably the best golfer golf has seen the last 15 years consistently.”

However, to continue keeping his name in the same conversation as the European greats, McIlroy went on an intense swing-training regiment, locking himself in a swing simulator for three weeks.

“I probably haven't liked the shape of my golf swing for a while, especially the backswing,” he said. “The only way I was going to make a change or at least move in the right direction with my swing was to lock myself in a studio and not see the ball flight for a bit and just focus entirely on the movement."

McIlroy added: “Think doing this in the studio, it was a big key for me to just try to make a start on getting the swing back to where I want it to be. But it's an ongoing process, as you know, to get out here and play. When there’s sequences to the shots that you hit, you're always going to revert back to what’s comfortable. Hopefully, the more that I do over these next few months, it will bed in and get back to the shape I want to be in.”

McIlroy, who has 26 PGA Tour wins and 17 DP World Tour victories, will have made 27 starts this year, which has made it difficult for him to tweak his swing. But now that he’s had some downtime, he’s hoping his swing change helps him add more illustrious titles to an already extensive career resume.

“Obviously Race to Dubai wins would count to that but also major championships and hopefully I’ve got a few more Ryder Cups ahead of me as well,” he said. “So that’s something that I would like to, I think is a goal that’s quite attainable over the next 10 years.”