McILROY: I’M NOT IN IT FOR THE MONEY
Rory McIlroy has a decent chance of being £7.5million richer come Sunday night but he provoked open-mouthed astonishment yesterday when he said it wouldn’t mean much to him.
Before the CEO of FedEx, the company responsible for most of that largesse, feels the need to lie down in a darkened room, we should allow the Northern Irishman to explain.
‘obviously it would be nice to bank that amount but it’s not what excites me about this week,’ he said. ‘The FedEx Cup is not something I have on my c.v and that would be more exciting to me than walking away with the cheque.’
As if to emphasise how far he’s come, McIlroy told a lovely story from his early days as a professional, and a watch he coveted.
‘I’d been looking at it for quite a while, it was back in 2007, and I did well in the Dunhill links,’ he said.
‘I was still at the stage where the prize money was going straight into my debit account in Ireland. Well, the following week I went to an ATM to draw some money out and checked my bank balance. It said £220,000! I went straight to the store and bought the watch.’
Now, of course, he gets paid to wear one, with the pick of the entire omega range.
When did the money stop mattering? ‘I suppose the easy answer would be to say January 2013,’ said the 26-year-old, with his usual disarming honesty, referring to the day he signed on for Nike, and a reputed five- year contract worth £65m.
‘But it was probably before that. look, we’re playing for first prizes of over a million dollars every week, so we are just in such a fortunate position. I think all of us on tour realise that. you feel very privileged to think you can set up not only your own kids for a nice life, but their kids as well.’
McIlroy is one of 29 players here at the Tour Championship who will have the chance to win not only the £1m first prize but the £ 6.5m FedEx Cup play-offs bonus as well.
Australian Jason Day is in pole position following his brilliant summer with four wins in his last six starts, but anyone presently stationed in the top five — the others are Jordan Spieth, rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson — will win the bonus if they win this final event.
McIlroy stands 11th and is one of those needing help from the top five even if he were to win the tournament.
But he’s exactly where Jim Furyk was when he walked away with it all in 2010. Justin rose, presently 12th, is in a similar position.
As for Paul Casey, the other UK player to make it through, he is an outsider but American Bill Haas defied longer odds when he won in 2011, so it can be done. SAMIT PATEL is back in England’s Test squad, replacing the injured Zafar Ansari for the tour of the UAE against Pakistan. Left-arm all-rounder Patel, 30, played the last of his five Tests in India in 2012. He has taken 30 wickets at 30.30 for Nottinghamshire this season and scored two centuries. He said: ‘My bowling has improved a lot since I last played international cricket and, playing in the UAE, the conditions should give me some assistance.’ England have also given central contracts to oneday captain Eoin Morgan and paceman Mark Wood. Somerset, meanwhile, secured their County Championship Division One status after Jack Leach took five for 47 against Warwickshire. GREAT BRITAIN’S tennis stars will travel to Ghent to contest the Davis Cup final on 27-29 November on a specially laid surface of indoor clay. As expected, the match against Belgium will be played in the Flanders Expo centre. Andy Murray must decide whether to play in the ATP World Tour Finals, staged on a hard court at london’s o2 Arena the week before. He tweeted: ‘Think clay is a good surface for us, looking forward to it.’
ANDY STEVENS holed a 5ft putt to regain golf’s Simpson Cup for Great Britain and Ireland at Royal St George’s in a 9½-8½ win over the USA. The annual match for injured war veterans will be held at Oak Hill next year, with Lanny Wadkins and Bernard Gallacher as honorary captains.