SCOTT CROCKETT: Ladies and gentlemen, Rory, welcome, and thanks for coming in. We sat here at the start of the week, we talked about the possibility of you winning The Race to Dubai. It's now a reality. Just give us your thoughts on that.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, look, it's absolutely incredible. I knew I still had a bit of work to do to get over the line in The Race to Dubai. I played some really good golf last weekend to go a little further than Marco, even going into today, there was still, you know, Tyrrell was only one back and it was a bunched leaderboard.
So I knew I needed to go out and play well and get the job done. Thankful when I finally looked at a leaderboard, around the end of the front nine, I saw he was in the lead and Tyrrell wasn't in the top 10. So you know, I felt like I was maybe a little bit more at ease at that point, but at the same time -- I didn't play a good back nine in terms of trying to win the tournament. Obviously what I did at the last, got myself into the playoff.
Look, I feel like the last couple years, I've come into these two events, in Abu Dhabi and here, and really didn't need to do much to win The Race to Dubai but I'm really proud of myself that I came here after the season that I've had and I knuckled down and I played some really good golf to get the job done.
So would have been lovely to finish it off with a win today, but I'm really happy for Matt, as well. He got off to a rough start this year and he really turned it around, and very, very deserving winner.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You're a fierce competitor, we all know that, and we saw that on the 72nd hole. It didn't work out in the playoff, but that trophy sitting next to you must be the icing on the cake to what has been a sensational year for you.
RORY McILROY: Flying here to the Middle East a couple weeks ago, my whole Dole was to play well enough to make sure I won my seventh Race to Dubai title. I did that, and I'm really proud of myself.
I said this numerous times this week. I could have came in here these last two weeks of the year and relaxed a little bit and taken it easy. But I really wanted -- I'm a proud person and I take pride in my performances on the golf course, and I want to give a really good account of myself these two weeks, and I feel like I've done that.
Q. In all of my observing of you, it seems no other golfer gets you quite as emotional as the mentioning of Seve. Why do you think that is?
RORY McILROY: I think it's just how much he means to European golf, how much he means to any player that's played in a Ryder Cup Team. I think Seve's spirit lives on in the European Tour and in the European Ryder Cup Team, and he was always my dad's favourite player.
Yeah, he's a beacon of what European golf stands for, and you know, I just think about growing up and playing golf and my dad being such a big part of it, and then, like, his sort of connection with Seve, or Seve was the one that really inspired him to play golf. And then, I don't know, it's just a parallel to that.
When I hear Seve, it just sort of brings me back through my whole journey in the game, and yeah, it's quite emotional.
Q. Talk about playing in the final group in The Race to Dubai with The Challenge Tour, HotelPlanner Tour, leader --
RORY McILROY: It's amazing. I was really looking forward to playing with Rasmus today because I heard so many good things about him. He went through college system, played at Oklahoma, overlapped a little bit with Viktor at Viktor's time at Oklahoma.
I guess he's been on the radar of a lot of people for the last year, and I thought his attitude today was good. He didn't get off to the best of starts, but he hung in there and he played a great back nine to give himself a chance to win the golf tournament.
Yeah, he's got a really bright future. I keep saying this, anyone that keeps coming through, most of them -- you look at Ludvig a couple years ago, and now you've got Rasmus. There's an incredible line of young Europeans coming through, and that's good to see.
Q. On the first tee, the excitement then, what does that mean to you, the welcome you get on this tour?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I don't take it for granted. I also know it's a big responsibility.
I remember going to Mount Juliet in 2002 and watching the American Express and seeing a lot of my favourite players for the first time. I think about myself back then when I was 12 years old and I look at the kid in the crowd at The Irish Open or Wentworth or whatever it is, I feel like I have a responsibility there to be a role model and inspire them.
Obviously I feel like I get incredible support when I come back and play on this tour. It's such a pleasure to play in atmospheres like that and environments like that.
Q. How much of a platform do you think the DP World Tour has right now in 2025, with what you've done, the Ryder Cup victory, Tommy winning, announcing a ten-year deal with DP World, this is potentially a big, big moment ahead of a bigger era?
RORY McILROY: I hope so. The DP World Tour, with everything that's gone down in the game of golf, it's somehow found itself in a very strong position.
Look, the world of professional golf is still a little weird and who knows what the future is going to look like, but to have the commitment of DP World for ten years; and to see Ryder Cup Team doing so well and to see how much it means to every single one of the players that's on the team; and to have amazing events like this; to have from the start of September all the way true to, I would say, to the end of January, the DP World Tour is the sort of shining light of golf during course of that time frame. It's amazing that all of the players that are coming to play in those events, and hopefully that continues for a long time.
Q. I wanted to ask you a couple of question. First, the replica of the trophy that you get, did you plan where to put it looking for your house in London?
RORY McILROY: We will see. No, we didn't -- I don't -- look, I like to display my trophies but I like displaying them in places that aren't prominent in the house.
So the trophies in Wentworth are stuck in the basement. But it's nice, I go in there and hit some balls or hit some putts. It's nice to see them and get some inspiration from them.
I think we were more concerned about the colour of Poppy's bedroom than where my trophies were going.
Q. Like what Martin asked you, all four days you played with players that are newcomers on the Tour. You played with four of the youngsters. What do you think of the kind of players that are coming, and what did this week tell you?
RORY McILROY: I think, two things. I think it's wonderful that there is that depth on this tour, and the players that I played with this week have had wonderful years to get to this point, especially from the category in which they were playing from.
So just getting their tour cards or getting off The Challenge Tour, or getting on with the tour from Q-School or whatever it is.
But I think that, also -- that also highlights like the upward mobility in terms of the meritocracy of the Tour, and if you play the golf and you shoot the score, there's no reason why you can't go from The Challenge Tour last year to playing in the final group of DP World Tour this year.
That upward mobility and meritocracy is very important, and the four guys that I played with this week are a testament that that's the case.
Q. You said that you spoke with Carmen before the round, can you talk about that how special is that relationship?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's very special. It's really nice to have that relationship with the Ballesteros family. I never got to really meet Seve in person or spend any time with him. So to have that relationship is very, very special. We talked about, you know, I said I went to, earlier this year, and I actually, I know Martin's sister, Anna pretty well -- inaudible -- used to be a sponsor of mine.
It's amazing to have that relationship, and obviously if you win the players Player of the Year on the DP World Tour, you get awarded the Seve Ballesteros Award. I'm very lucky to have my name on that a couple of times. Yeah, the relationship is important.
Q. A lot has been made, standing there with seven Race to Dubais. Do you ever sit back and appreciate what you've achieved?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, sometimes. I think as you're still playing, it's probably detrimental to do it too much. But yeah, there's times when I catch myself, and I think my place in the game and where I'm going to end up.
Again, as a 36-year-old, hopefully with a lot of years left in the tank, I don't think about it too much. But yeah, you can appreciate that up until this point, it's been a pretty good run.
SCOTT CROCKETT: I said a moment ago, this was the end of the press conference. It's been a sensational year for you, we all know that, and nobody could be any prouder than ourselves than here at the DP World Tour. To recognise that fact I would like to invite a special guest up to the stage, Guy Kinnings, who has a small -- to the really a small presentation but a large presentation.
GUY KINNINGS: I should imagine you would be quite keen to get away and celebrate what has been a ridiculously good year. It's been amazing. But we're not going to let you go away.
To be fair, you've done so many extraordinary things this year, but we at the Tour feel that while you do them for your family, the team, you do a little bit for us, and every single member of the staff appreciates what you do. The career Grand Slam is an extraordinary achievement. So we have just a little thing from all of us, thank you for what you do and how you do it. Thank you very much.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports