'Spirit of Seve' makes Rory McIlroy emotional again after latest Race to Dubai win

Not when he won the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai title for the fourth year in a row and seventh time in total. The 36-year-old is now within touching distance of Colin Montgomerie’s record haul of eight Harry Vardon Trophy triumphs but, for now, he’ll savour moving one ahead of Seve Ballesteros.

As was the case when he moved level with the Spaniard 12 months ago, McIlroy became emotional when the great man’s name was mentioned at the conclusion of the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. He’d already had a bit of a greet in a greenside Sky Sports interview with Tim Barter and was choking back the tears again a bit later in the media centre when he was asked about Ballesteros.

“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,” said the world No 2. “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, when I hear Seve mentioned, it just sort of brings me back through my whole journey in the game, and yeah, it's quite emotional.”

McIlroy never got the chance to meet Ballesteros in person but is friendly with his wife Carmen while Seve’s son, Javier, is out on tour these days as a manager, with Angel Ayore, who gave a great account of himself in the season finale, being one of the players he looks after.

“Yeah, it's very special. It's really nice to have that relationship with the Ballesteros family,” added a smiling McIlroy. “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.”

Though he’d done most of the heavy lifting earlier in the year, McIlroy ensured he wasn’t going to be pipped at the post in the Race to Dubai by finishing third in the penultimate event of the campaign - the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship - then coming second in the final one as the season ended with two big-money Play-Offs in the UAE.

“Yeah, sometimes,” he replied to being asked if he ever has the chance to sit back and appreciate what he’s achieved in terms of being European No 1. “There's times when I catch myself thinking about my place in the game and where I'm going to end up. 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.”

McIlroy admitted that he gets “inspiration” from seeing his trophies but showed his sense of humour to being asked where he planned to put the replica for this feat in his new house at Wentworth. “I think we were more concerned about the colour of Poppy's bedroom than where my trophies were going,” he said of his daughter, who, once again, was there to celebrate with wife Erica.

In one of the most exciting conclusions in the circuit’s history, McIlroy rolled in a 15-foot eagle putt at the 72nd hole to finish level with Fitzpatrick, who, with Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood and Laurie Canter all warming up on the range in case they were involved in a play-off, moved into the clubhouse lead on his own.

It seemed like it was going to be the Amgen Irish Open all over again only for McIlroy, the defending champion, to find the water that zig zags it way up the middle of the 18th fairway with his drive at the first extra hole and, as a consequence, a par proved good enough for Fitzpatrick to claim the Rolex Series title for a third time as the Sheffield man repeated wins in both 2016 and 2020.

“There's a handful of players I think in the world of golf that are not on your list of people to play against in a play-off - obviously he's right up there,” admitted a smiling Fitzpatrick, who, in picking up a cheque for $3 million, jumped 15 spots to finish third behind McIlroy and Marco Penge in the final Race to Dubai Standings.

The win capped a brilliant second half of the year for Fitzpatrick, who never really looked back after tying for fourth in the Genesis Scottish Open and well and truly vindicated his captain’s pick from Luke Donald for the Ryder Cup in New York, where his qualities as a major winner shone through. “Yeah, incredibly satisfying,” he said of his second half of the year. “To turn it around and be in this position now and to end the season with a win, yeah, it is beyond special.”

Penge led the way in the battle for ten PGA Tour cards for 2026, with Canter, Kristoffer Reitan, Adrian Saddier, Alex Noren, John Parry, Haotong Li, Keita Nakakima, Rasmus Neegaard-Petersen being the other players to punch tickets for the US circuit. In the final group of the season, 2024 DP World Tour No 1 McIlroy played with 2024 HotelPlanner Tour No 1 Neergaard-Petersen.

“It's amazing,” observed McIlroy of the progress made by Neergaard-Petersen and other graduates from last year in a short space of time. “There's an incredible line of young Europeans coming through, and that's good to see.”

They’ll all be trying to topple McIlroy in years to come but, for the time being the Northern Irishman remains the man to beat and it was fitting that the 2025 DP World Tour season officially concluded with his feat in becoming just the sixth player - and first European - to complete a career grand slam by marked with a presentation to him at the end of his press conference by European Tour Group CEO Guy Kinnings.

Bob MacIntyre finished as the leading Scot in ythe season-ending event, tying for eighth to finish a career-best sixth in the Race to Dubai, with Calum Hill slipping a spot to 38th on the final points list, which saw Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson also drop to 46th and 47th respectively while Connor Syme remained in 49th position.