Why does Rory McIlroy continue to play on DP World Tour? His lifelong goal tells all

Despite the logistical challenges, Rory McIlroy continues to play on both the PGA and DP World Tours. He explained why in Abu Dhabi.

Rory McIlroy is all but a lock to win a sixth DP World Tour Order of Merit, the award given to the season-long champion on the circuit formerly known as the European Tour.

He has dominated the DP World Tour in recent years despite playing on it part-time. Look no further than the 2024 season, which includes a victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and three runner-up finishes. You cannot forget his close call at Pinehurst No. 2 as well. In addition to the four majors, McIlroy made 15 starts on the PGA Tour in 2024—20 altogether if you count the Olympic Men’s Golf Competition, where he tied for fourth.

But after the Tour Championship in August, McIlroy flew across the Atlantic to play in the Irish Open at Royal County Down, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and then, most recently, the Alfred Dunhill Links at St. Andrews in October. He played a loaded schedule across the world, despite the fracas outside the ropes between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Of course, McIlroy has been caught in that crossfire over the past few years, saying that he “hates LIV” and felt like a “sacrificial lamb” after the shocking framework agreement became public. He changed his course in the months that followed, opting to support a global tour with the best players from both circuits. But McIlroy then resigned from the PGA Tour Policy Board in November 2023. Yet, he still wanted to have a role in golf’s future, so he has since joined the policy board’s Transaction Subcommittee, hoping to resurrect the pro game through a concrete agreement. All of this is to say that the Ulsterman has been a busy—and you have to figure a stressed—man.

He also faced some personal issues at home between the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, perhaps related to his global treks and accentuated talks with the Saudis. Being a professional golfer of his pedigree is not easy in this day and age.

So, despite all of these various balls in the air, McIlroy continues to make it a priority to play on the DP World Tour.

But why?

“I pride myself [on being] a European player,” McIlroy said at a Wednesday press conference ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the DP World Tour’s first playoff event.

“I would like to go down as the most successful European of all time.”

McIlroy has won four major championships and has helped Europe win the Ryder Cup on five occasions. If he walks away from the game right now, he would go down in history as one of the best Europeans ever. But he has no plans to do that, which explains why McIlroy is well on his way to achieving his goal—something he hopes to accomplish within the next decade. After all, as it currently stands, only five Europeans have won more majors than McIlroy in their careers. Harry Vardon—who the Order of Merit trophy is named after—leads the way with seven major titles, all coming between 1896 and 1914. Nick Faldo has six. Seve Ballesteros has five, as does Scotsman James Braid and Englishman John Henry Taylor, the latter two winning all five of their majors before World War I.

“I’m very proud to be from Europe... and play on this tour consistently,” McIlroy added.

“It’s something that I’m very proud of, and I just think of the greats of European golf that I grew up watching, whether it was Faldo or Woosie or Langer or just sort of the real heyday of The European Tour in the ‘90s, I guess.”

The European Tour has changed since the 1990s, when Scotsman Collin Montgomerie dominated the circuit. It’s no longer a rival tour of the PGA Tour, which gave the Ryder Cup plenty of competitive juice and helped turn the biennial competition into what it is today. Nevertheless, pundits view the now-DP World Tour as a feeder tour to the PGA Tour, something Europeans could have never envisioned 30 years ago. Tiger Woods played a role in that. So did Corporate America.

The top-10 finishers from the DP World Tour—not otherwise exempt—now receive PGA Tour cards for the following season, depriving the European circuit of its talent and creating a more diverse talent pool in the United States. In addition, the DP World Tour has adjusted its schedule to cater to the PGA Tour. It now travels to Australia, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa from December through May before finally staging an event on European soil after the PGA Championship. The PGA Tour, meanwhile, stages the bulk of its Signature Events during this period. These no-cut events are designed to have the best players compete side-by-side for elevated purses, thus appealing to American fans and television audiences. Plenty of recent DP World Tour graduates, like Matthieu Pavon, have seen success in these tournaments, too. Pavon even finished solo third at Pebble Beach in his Signature Event debut, whereas 12 months earlier, he was busy racking up top-10s in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, to avoid competing with the NFL, the PGA Tour now ends its FedEx Cup Playoffs by Labor Day weekend, thus opening the door for the DP World Tour to stage marquee events in the fall. Its flagship event—the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth—is now in September, not May. The Irish Open, the French Open, and the Spanish Open, all of which have been held during the spring and early summer in recent years, have also moved to the fall, giving players like McIlroy a short offseason.

Hence, McIlroy believes the DP World Tour should adjust its schedule again.

“I think hopefully we’ll get more than just the patch at the end of the year,” McIlroy added.

“There has to be some tournaments dispersed throughout the year for the Tour to stay relevant, not just in a four-month window but a little bit more than that. Yeah, look, we’ll see what happens. I’ve articulated that I think The European Tour is in a good spot because it might have a couple of different options going forward.”

One of those options could be a direct investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), LIV Golf’s beneficiary. Should the PIF’s negotiations with the PGA Tour fall short, or the Department of Justice (DOJ) blocks the deal altogether, maybe the PIF will inject capital into the DP World Tour.

Regardless of what happens, McIlroy will never abandon the DP World Tour like so many others unfortunately have. His legacy means a great deal to him, and he is already a staple of the illustrious European contingent. So, maybe, in 10 years, when revisiting European golf history, one name will stand above all of the others. That could be Rory McIlroy, who, as it currently stands, is one of the best European players ever. But a couple more majors—and a few more Order of Merit titles—would supplant him as the best and fulfill his ultimate goal.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.