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Rory McIlroy – Lead Shrinks in Race to Dubai

By Kathlene Bissell

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Rory McIlroy is sitting out the BMW Masters while Danny Willett, Shane Lowry and Louis Oosthuizen close the gap on his Race to Dubai lead.

After two of the four final weeks of the Race to Dubai, Rory McIlroy’s lead has shrunk from 399,385 points to 74,213. Making matters worse for him, he’s sitting out this week.

The man closing the gap is Danny Willett, and he has the BMW Masters and the DP World Challenge left to overtake the leader. With McIlroy sitting out the BMW Masters, Willett may be the new leader soon. He is not resting. Willett, Shane Lowry and Louis Oosthuizen, the three closest to McIlroy in points, will be the final grouping in round one Thursday.

If Willett’s last round is any indicator, he’s still got some game.

“It’s special shooting 62 at home with the lads, it’s always nice, but in a World Golf Championships on a Sunday when it means something a bit more, obviously it’s that little bit more special,” Willett said.

McIlroy was paying attention.

“I saw he got off to a good start, and then he kept it going. Great round of golf, 10-under par, not sure it’s going to be quite enough for him but he played really well,” McIlroy said. “He’s got a great chance to do something next week at the BMW. So no matter what happened this week, he’s playing next week and has a great chance to creep up on me or overtake the lead.”

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McIlroy started the week with food poisoning, but was recovered by Sunday. He had lost some weight, television commentators mentioned.

However, he thinks his game is rounding into form.

“I just didn’t hole enough putts and that’s sort of been the story of my season, well, at least, for the last couple of months anyway,” he said. “I feel like every tournament I play, I’m getting a little bit better and hopefully I can continue in that trend and go into Dubai and play well again.”

Justin Rose, after taking the first two of the final four off, is back this week at the BMW Masters. He still has his sights set on the Race to Dubai and just spent some time in Hong Kong.

“I feel very good about my game,” he said. “Getting back from Hong Kong, it was more relax and recharge the batteries before a bit of traveling and one final sort of last-ditch effort to try and overtake Rory and Danny and a couple of the other guys ahead of me. Really keeping my eye on some stuff. Sean Foley flew over and we spent a few hours working on some stuff, but nothing changing at this point.”

Rose knows where he sits.

“I’m about 800,000 behind Rory and Danny, so for me, that’s a win,” he said. “If I win any of the last two events or either of the last two events, that puts me ahead of them, obviously, depending on what they do. For me it’s fairly simple: I need to play well the next two weeks.”

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He’s actually 865,699 points back.

Branden Grace, sixth in the Race to Dubai, was taking a lot of positives from his fifth place finish.

“Obviously it’s not the W but it’s right up there and still in good form heading into next week,” he said. He is 926,625 points behind McIlroy.

With approximately a 25th place finish, Willett could move into the top spot this week. With a second place finish, Lowry or Oosthuizen could overtake McIlroy. Rose and Grace would have to win to take the top spot, depending on what others do.

McIlroy better hope for some of that Irish good luck.

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PointsPointsPoints behind
after HSBCwith a winMcIlroy
MCILROY3,393,923
WILLETT3,319,7101,333,3304,653,04074,213
LOWRY2,666,3441,333,3303,999,674727,579
OOSTHUIZEN2,602,1071,333,3303,935,437791,816
ROSE2,528,2241,333,3303,861,554865,699
GRACE2,467,2981,333,3303,800,628926,625
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