Rory McIlroy wrapped up his year’s work in the desert with another box ticked. In securing the Harry Vardon Trophy – awarded to the winner of the DP World Tour’s order of merit – for a fourth time in his career, the Northern Irishman once again demonstrated his season’s dominance in adding that title to the FedEx Cup he won on the PGA Tour.
Add in the fact that he is world number one, and likely will head into 2023 with that accolade, and McIlroy’s impressive work throughout 2022, which began back in Abu Dhabi in January, has reaped its rewards.
That McIlroy achieved this latest European Tour order of merit title – to go with his successes in 2012, 2014 and 2015 – by dipping his foot into the water without fully immersing his entire body is a measure of how consistently well he played. For comparison, McIlroy played just 10 times on the DP World Tour schedule this season, while runner-up Ryan Fox competed in 24 tournaments.
McIlroy’s form, even without a win in those DP World Tour counting forays, was consistent: the year started with a tied-12th finish in Abu Dhabi which would prove to be his worst result, as he subsequently claimed two runners-up finishes, two thirds, three fourths, a fifth and an eighth-placed finish.
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In the season-ending DP World Tour Championship on The Earth course in Dubai, McIlroy’s fourth-placed finish – in a tournament won for the third time by Spain’s Jon Rahm – was sufficient to see him comfortably regain the order of merit title. McIlroy finished on 4,754 points to Fox’s 4,173, while Rahm’s win moved him to third in the final standings.
McIlroy’s wins this year all came on the PGA Tour – the Canadian Open, the Tour Championship and the CJ Cup – and his points for the DP World Tour primarily came from his consistent play in the Majors (second in the Masters, eighth in the US PGA, fifth in the US Open, and third in the 150th Open).
“It means a lot, it’s been seven years since I’ve last done it,” admitted McIlroy. “Obviously this is my fourth one but it’s been a while [since 2015]. I’ve won three FedEx Cups since the last time I won. I was a model of consistency the whole way through the year, a lot of top finishes. It would have been nice to get one win in there at the end of the year but Jon [Rahm] obviously played an incredible tournament and fully deserved it. I’m really proud of my year, and excited for 2023,” said McIlroy.
McIlroy’s fourth order of merit moved him alongside Peter Oosterhuis in third place on the all-time table, which is headed by Colin Montgomerie (eight titles) with Seve Ballesteros in second (six titles).
“I’m very proud of myself. It seems like it’s a long time since San Antonio, the Texas Open the week before Augusta this year, when I was sort of struggling a little bit and made a couple of tweaks with my game and with my equipment. Went to a different golf ball. It seemed like just after that, my whole year turned around and got a ton the momentum at the Masters and just went from there.
“I think one of the things I’m really proud of over the last few years is I don’t feel I have to rely on one aspect of my game. I think if my driving isn’t there, then my putter bails me out. If my putter isn’t there, my iron play bails me out.
“I feel like when you get to this level, it’s like, ’okay, how can you make those incremental improvements to get better?’ And I think my goal has been to just become a more complete golfer and I feel like I’m on the journey to doing that … I’m as complete a golfer as I feel like I’ve ever been, and hopefully I can continue on that path,” said McIlroy.
