It is no surprise, as the DP World Tour resumes this week in Dubai, to see the 10 players who qualified for their PGA Tour cards last season planning the months ahead in their own individual ways.
Although no longer directly involved after his resignation from the PGA Tour Policy Board, McIlroy clearly continues to give the future of professional golf some serious thought.
If all goes to plan, a slightly “braver” target a few yards to the right of the clock will be an option for players in the AIG Women’s Open next August.
The 45-year-old former world No.1 is Europe’s first repeat skipper since Bernard Gallacher rounded off his third successive captaincy with an unlikely triumph at Oak Hill in 1995.
The men who have gained their PGA Tour cards through season-long play on the DP World Tour in 2023 – a Pole, a New Zealander, two Frenchmen, a Dane, a Swede, a Scotsman, a Spaniard, a Japanese and a Finn – are definitely the first of their kind.
Closing with an eight-under-par 64 that included five birdies in his last six holes, the Dane made off with the DP World Tour Championship and the $US3 million first prize, easily the biggest of the 22-year-old’s career.
While all the golfers moving from Europe to the PGA Tour will have played in America before, staying for long periods of time is not quite the same as popping in and out.
An overnight storm led to preferred lies being in place, so the 33-year-old Englishman’s effort will not count in the former European Tour’s record books.
Few could argue that McIlroy, in what are likely to be the peak years of his already storied career, gave plenty to the PGA Tour cause since joining the board in 2021. With some justification, he is clearly proud of the contribution he has made.
Chief executive Keith Pelley was firmly circumspect and almost entirely non-specific in his responses to queries about where the DP World Tour is likely to sit within golf’s eco-system when the current discussions eventually come to an end.
The banter, indeed, was fierce at times. And all off-the-record. Anything else would be an invasion of privacy and unethical. But it was fun to listen to.
The final day of the Qatar Masters was a contrasting mixture of heartwarming and heartbreaking stories within that stark narrative, quite apart from Sami Valimaki’s second tour win.
Playing the last 16 holes of his Sunday final round in eight-under-par, the Pole claimed his fourth DP World Tour title at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
Chair of the DP World Tour’s Tournament Committee, David Howell, said the captaincy selection process won’t begin until later in the year and is not likely to include formal interviews as has been the case in the recent past.