European Tour blow as Mcilroy gives Race to Dubai finale a miss

Rory Mcilroy has revealed he intends to skip the European Tour’s Race To Dubai season finale for the first time in his career.

Mcilroy is playing the PGA Tour’s equivalent, the Fedex Cup playoffs, which start next Thursday in New York, but after appearing at the Dunhill Links at St Andrews in the first week of October, he plans to take a 3½-month break.

Mcilroy believes he needs the rest to recover fully from a rib complaint which has plagued him in a year in which he remains without a win. “I’m OK to play these next four out of five weeks,” the world No4 said. “But then I do need a prolonged period off at some point in 2017 to be ready for 2018.”

At the conclusion of the USPGA two weeks ago, Mcilroy intimated he could be out for the rest of the year as he sought to eradicate his injury problems. Yet after consultation with fitness adviser Steve Mcgregor in Belfast last week, he decided to defend his Fedex title.

However, something has to give and it is a blow to his home circuit that he is choosing to sidestep the Europe run-in, which concludes in

Recovery period: Rory Mcilroy will let his rib injury heal and work on his game

Dubai on Nov 19. Mcilroy has lifted the Vardon Trophy three times in the past five years and, despite standing in ninth place behind leader Tommy Fleetwood, would still have been in the main draw.

“I feel like I’m going to have a good bit of time at the end of the year to work on my fitness, to work on my game,” Mcilroy told ESPN.

Mcilroy, 28, has previously expressed his desire for the game to have “a proper off-season” and Keith Pelley, the European Tour chief executive, will read those remarks with a degree of concern.

With the USPGA moving to May in 2019 and with the US season then set to finish in August, there is pressure to ensure the Tour’s campaign is wrapped up by early October.

For now, Mcilroy will be concentrating on ‘rescuing’ his campaign by scooping the Fedex bounty, just as he did in 2016. Ranked 41st, Mcilroy presumably requires a win in the next three events, beginning with the Northern Trust Open, for a shot at the $10million Fedex bonus for whoever is top after next month’s Tour Championship.

Meanwhile, Billy Payne, who opened the doors of Augusta National to women members, is to retire as chairman of the US Masters venue. He will be succeeded by Fred Ridley, chairman of the Masters competition committees.