There was three Irishmen in the top fifteen with Tom McKibbin and Shane Lowry all finishing below McIlroy.
McIlroy persevered massively against Højgaard, who beat McIlroy in the Irish Open earlier this season and managed to outplay the Dane with some exquisite shots – particularly an approach on the 16th hole to open up a lead going down the stretch.
McIlroy has now equalled Seve Ballesteros with six ‘order of merits' on the European Tour/DP World Tour. “It’s really cool. I think everyone knows what Seve means to European golf, to Ryder Cup players. He means so much to European golf and for me to be mentioned in the same breath I am very proud.”
“It means a lot. I’ve been through a lot this year professionally and personally. It feels like a fitting end to 2024 – I’ve persevered this year a lot, had close calls, wasn’t able to get it done. So to be able to get over the line…I hung on and got the job done.”
The Northern Irishman now fixates his sights on Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight ‘order of merits’ – which would no doubt cast McIlroy as the greatest European golfer of all time.
While his season is over on both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, McIlroy will be in action again on December 17th, playing alongside Scottie Scheffler against LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
Hello reader, I'm Ben. I love to write and talk about sports and I am, unfortunately, hopeless at golf. Thanks for reading!
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