McIlroy moves to top of order of merit

TOUR NEWS:ONLY THE incomparable Seve Ballesteros managed to top the European Tour's order of merit at a younger age, but Rory McIlroy – who has moved to the head of affairs in the Race to Dubai standings after his tied-second place finish in the Dunhill Links – will leave no stone unturned in his quest to become the second youngest winner of the Harry Vardon trophy.

McIlroy took advantage of the absence of both Martin Kaymer (foot) and Paul Casey (ribs) through injury to leapfrog them in the latest European Tour money list, even if he only has €26,512 to spare over Germany’s Kaymer in the latest standings.

In the moving to the top, however, McIlroy has at least taken the destination of the prestige title – and, perhaps even more importantly, the huge financial carrot of €1 million on offer through bonuses to whoever finishes atop the list after the Dubai World Championship in November – into his own hands.

McIlroy plans to take a week off, missing out on the Madrid Masters starting on Thursday, before a late-season charge that takes in next week’s Portuguese Masters, the Barclays Singapore Open, the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament, the Hong Kong Open and, finally, the Dubai World Championship in his bid to claim the order of merit title. Pádraig Harrington (2006) and Ronan Rafferty (1989) are the only Irish players to win the order of merit.

Although McIlroy had a great opportunity to open up a greater gap over Kaymer until closing bogeys on the 16th and 17th, the 20-year-old Ulsterman conceded, “I thought I had a really good chance (getting to four-under-par on the round through nine holes), but I just didn’t play well enough on the back nine . . . Second (place) is okay, but I wanted better. Still, I’ve always got Portugal (next week) to make up more ground.”

In finishing tied-second alongside Oliver Wilson behind Simon Dyson, McIlroy returned to the top 20 in the official world rankings. McIlroy jumped five places from 24th to 19th.

While McIlroy takes a breather before embarking on that hectic late-season bid to top the money list, there will be eight Irish players in action in this week’s Madrid Masters. Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie, Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey, Gary Murphy and Gareth Maybin are all playing.

Meanwhile, American Matt Kuchar – a former US amateur champion (in 1997) with just one previous win on tour in the 2002 Honda Classic – defeated Vaughn Taylor at the sixth play-off hole to capture the Turning Stone Championship on the US Tour yesterday, a win that moved him to 25th on the US Tour’s money list and in line for an invitation to next year’s US Masters. The top 30 on the end-of-season money list get an invitation to Augusta.