Rory McIlroy has claimed his seventh Order of Merit this Sunday in Dubai on the DP World Tour. The Northern Irishman, who entered the tournament as the standout leader of the Race to Dubai, left no chance for his rivals and further cemented his legend on the European circuit, where he is now just one title away from matching the record of Scotsman Colin Montgomerie, who was crowned champion of the European Tour no less than eight times between 1993 and 2005.
The current Masters Tournament winner arrived this week at the Earth Course of the Jumeirah Golf Estates with a comfortable lead in the standings. Only the Englishmen Marco Penge and Tyrrell Hatton had a slim chance of taking the crown from him. But neither the former, who was practically ruled out from the start with a poor tournament start, nor the latter, who pushed on Saturday but faltered this Sunday, could prevent McIlroy‘s fourth consecutive title.
Rory first won the Race to Dubai in 2012, with earnings of more than five and a half million euros. He repeated in 2014 and 2015, with over seven million and nearly five, respectively. And after six years of drought, during which Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood, Francesco Molinari, Jon Rahm, Lee Westwood, and Collin Morikawa shared the victories, since 2022, with the emergence of LIV Golf and the departure of some of his adversaries to the Saudi tour, the Northern Irishman has dominated the circuit with an iron fist to reach this seventh accolade.
With his second place today in the tournament, enough to retain the title, McIlroy surpasses Seve Ballesteros, who won the Order of Merit six times. Long gone is Peter Oosterhuis, a four-time circuit winner between 1971 and 1974. With thirteen years between his first and last title, the Northern Irishman continues to define an era and surpasses the twelve years that elapsed from the first time Montgomerie won the circuit to the last. He is now two years away from Seve’s 15 (first title in 1976 and last in 1991) and seven from Lee Westwood, who won three times (first in 2000 and last in 2020).
The fantastic year of Rory McIlroy, in which he achieved his long-awaited Grand Slam after winning for the first time in his career at Augusta National, ends with him being crowned as the best player of the DP World Tour, taking home an extra prize of two million dollars as the winner of the Order of Merit, which he adds to the 1.26 million he receives as the solo second in the tournament after falling in the playoff to Fitzpatrick. In total, he has played eleven circuit tournaments in 2025, including the four majors, with seven top 10 finishes.
