DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 10, 2026

Rory McIlroy

Jumeirah Golf Estates, Earth Course

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm delighted to welcome Rory McIlroy to the DP World Tour Championship this week here in Dubai.

Rory, we're obviously at Jumeirah this week, a golf course that you've had a lot of success at and you're looking at a Race to Dubai title No. 8. How excited are you at the prospect of that this week?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm very excited to be back here, and yeah, very excited to be in contention for the eighth. I made some ground up last week, maybe not as much as I wanted, but I felt like it was a step in the right direction.

And yeah, getting back to a place where I played, I played well and I had a lot of success, even last year in the playoff with Matt, it's been a course that's been very good to me over the years, and I have a lot of experience on it and a lot of experience up at the top end of the leaderboard. Experience going out in that final group on a Thursday.

So yeah, excited to do it all over again, and you know, try to play well enough to give myself a real chance at the weekend.

Q. Of the seven you've won, which is the one that stands out particular, and the time that's gone by from the first one to last year?

RORY McILROY: I'll always remember the first one pretty well because of how I did it. I birdied the last five holes in a row, I think. Justin Rose was making a big push. He finished really well. So that was a cool way to win.

Yeah, I mean, even I had a nice battle with Andy Sullivan in 2015. That was a cool day, as well.

And then the last few years, it's been -- I played well much earlier in the year where I've maybe not had to play at my absolute best to get it done, and this week's a little bit different.

But I do go back to the first one. I think I was second in The Race to Dubai in 2009. And then I played pretty well in '10 and '11, not close enough to get it done, but to get that first one in '12, I'll remember that.

Q. I wanted to speak to you about the distance. Adam Scott and Patrick Reed, they seemed to suggest that role the driver -- the size of the driver head back would be more preferable than the ball. Wonder where you are on that at the moment?

RORY McILROY: I'm in favour of doing anything and everything to sort of curb where we are at. Ball, club, I think the equipment at the top level needs to be regulated better than where it is right now.

Just for the overall, like, skill, like there's a disproportionate -- I guess distance is a big issue in the game at the top level because it maybe negates other skills that were more prevalent in golf 20 or 30 years ago. I'm sort of the poster child for this, right. I drove it on a couple of greens last week. You could argue that rolling it back for me is not beneficial or not advantageous, but the longest guys are still going to be longest guys.

And I think if we can just get a little bit more skill and shot-making back into the game, I think that would be better for everyone. I think it would separate the best players from each other, and I think it would make the game more entertaining to watch.

Q. You're obviously chasing Monty's record this week. He flew the flag for European golf for so long, do you have any memories of Sunday nights watching Monty, is he going to do it this time, sort of thing and he was your first Ryder Cup Captain. What does Monty mean to you as a character in the game?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'll always remember that driver he hit off the deck in Dubai at the Desert Classic, was it '96 or whatever, to win that tournament. Yeah, he was my first Ryder Cup Captain.

I remember going to watch him at the Volvo World Match Play at Wentworth over the years as a kid. I played the Junior Ryder Cup in 2004 and then the Ryder Cup was at Oakland Hills. I remember Monty being amazing that week. He held this massive putt on 18th green. One day I was at the back of the green.

Yeah, he was, as you say, a stalwart for European Tour golf, and was super successful and had a lot of longevity. Played the game at a very high level for a very long time, and was obviously unbelievably consistent in terms of winning.

He won eight of them, seven in a row, very, very impressive player; and I guess the only thing that was missing from that list was a major championship, but he basically did everything else that there was to do in the game.

Q. A bit off-topic, Bryson DeChambeau has six days to declare whether he's going to take up his membership. It's the last year he can use his major exemption. What impact do you think a character like Bryson could have on DP World Tour? Seems like a real opportunity for the Tour with an expanded pool of players to attract. What specifically do you think Bryson could bring to the DP World Tour?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, look, I think a name like Bryson DeChambeau and everything he brings with him, good and bad, he brings eyeballs, which is a good thing for tournaments. And honestly, look, I'm certainly not in his shoes, and nor would I ever want to be but it doesn't seem like he's got many options. You know, if he wants to play competitive golf, it doesn't seem like he's got many options.

Q. Just a follow-up to the question about Monty. Given your much publicised quote, the comment about the Ryder Cup being an "exhibition" at the time, do you remember him saying something to you at Celtic Manor that really helped change that opinion?

RORY McILROY: Not really. Not necessarily. I think it was more maybe some of the players on team that had experienced Ryder Cups before. The likes of G-Mac who I played with; it was his second one at the time. It was more maybe the other players rather than Monty himself. You know, Monty had a lot of other things to worry about that week, apart from me calling the Ryder Cup an exhibition.

Q. In terms of this week, how beneficial can your experience be here in comparison to Eugenio's lack of experience on this golf course?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think there's a little bit there. The course has changed and evolved a little bit over the years. It's certainly a lot more penal off the tee this year. The rough is very, very thick. You get a lot of bad lies in the rough.

But as I say, I think when you come back to a golf course that you played a lot on and you've done well on, that always gives you a little bit of an advantage starting the week.

Q. Playing Rory McIlroy on the Earth Course can be compared to playing Manchester United in Old Trafford (laughter).

RORY McILROY: Hopefully not.

Q. This week, we have four European players in the World Ranking Top 10. The highest number was five in 2018 in the last years. Is this good considering we have Ryder Cup in Adare Manor?

RORY McILROY: Yes, yes, but at the same time, if you look at the Ryder Cup teams over the last few years, the Americans have been the highest-ranked on paper, and you know, we've done pretty well against them.

So I don't think you can just go based on rankings alone but it does bode well. You know, Jon and Tyrrell played very well last week. You've got some young up-and-comers that are trying to push their way on to the team. I think that places for spots on team next year at Adare Manor will be very competitive, and I think that's a great thing. But yeah, I think Europe will have a very good team next year going into Adare trying to win three in a row.

Q. A two-part question regarding mindset. No. 1 is that you are really good at resetting your goals. What is your process in doing that, whether it's winning the Masters and then winning it again, going for the eighth Order of Merit title? And two, this young kid who got disqualified at Q-School, Frank Kennedy. Did you ever have issues with anger management, and what changed for you? When did you become so calm and composed on the golf course?

RORY McILROY: First thing about resetting goals, I think you almost have to have, not like amnesia, but you have to be able to forget the good and the bad, especially bad but also the good. Once you win something, yes, you can celebrate and you can reflect on it a little bit but you have to keep moving forward and thinking about what's next.

I've openly said that I struggled with that, especially after the '25 Masters because that's all I really wanted to do in golf for the last decade, and I did it. And then you have to, and it takes a while. Some people, it comes very naturally that they are able to just move on to the next thing and go for that.

I sometimes have struggled with it over years and I think that's why I have been very open about trying to read cycles and trying to move on and trying to accomplish different things. Because by saying it out loud and by saying it to you guys, you're saying it, and putting it into the public forum, I'm holding myself accountable to then go and do it.

It's okay to have these secret goals and to keep things in, but if you say it out loud and you put it into the public domain, you'd better follow through. It's a way to keep myself accountable.

And then, yeah, the Frank Kennedy thing, I think very unfortunate. I was talking to Harry about it out on the course. It seems harsh but at the same time, I think it's good that golf and the authorities are cracking down on things like this. It's an unbelievably unfortunate incident.

Yeah, I think we all, when we're younger, or even I still have my moments where I'm maybe not proud of some of the things that I do on the golf course in anger or if I've hit a bad shot.

But I would say since having Harry on the bag, like going back to just Harry, I'll never get angry at him because he's my best friend and he's only doing his best out there and whatever, and it's just not worth it. It's not worth to get angry because I would never want anything to get in the way of our friendship to start with.

But I think that's what probably keeps me the most calm on the golf course is, like, it's just not worth it. And yeah, I think nearly 20 years into a career, you learn to take the rough with the smooth and know that there's going to be highs and lows, and as long as you and expect those things to happen, then you can deal with them the right way.

Q. You kind of touched already a little bit about mindset and maintaining levels, but you also mentioned Monty has won seven Order of Merit titles in a row and you are now contending to win a fifth in a row. How difficult is it to maintain that level every year and how proud are you of that consistency?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it is, it's something that I've become increasingly proud of as my career has progressed is the consistency and the longevity of what I've been able to do over a 15-year period.

I think this will be the 15th or 16th year in a row that I will have finished the year in the Top 10 in the World Rankings. There may be a couple others that have done that before. Yeah, I'm very proud of that. I think that's maybe an underrated part of careers is that longevity piece.

And look, I was very lucky to start so young and get my Tour card at 18, and I've stayed pretty much injury-free throughout my career. And I've kept working and trying to get better at certain aspects of the game and always tried to see weaknesses or be critical of myself and try to get better at them.

I think that's just a re-occurring process that I try to do each and every year. That approach has worked really well for me and hopefully will continue to work well for me for a few more years yet.

BRIONY CARLYON: Rory, thank you for your time and all the best this week.