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Earlier this week, Brooks Koepka became the 23rd player to reach world No.1 after a season that included three wins, including two major championships.
A man already part of that exclusive club is Rory McIlroy, who spent 95 weeks as world No.1 – the fourth most of all-time behind Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Nick Faldo – between March 2012 and September 2015.
So, does the four-time major winner have a hunger to reach the summit again? He certainly wants to… but it certainly isn’t at the forefront of his mind.
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“It’s not a goal, because there’s other goals that you want to attain and achieve,” said the current world No.5 ahead of the WGC-HSBC Champions.
“If you do those then that No.1 ranking is just a byproduct of all those other goals that you achieved.
“I obviously want to get back to No.1, but it’s about winning golf tournaments and playing consistent golf.”
Including this week’s event in Shanghai, McIlroy has three events left in 2018. He’ll have a week off before playing in the Nedbank Golf Challenge and then the DP World Tour Championship.
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Despite being fourth in the Race to Dubai, he has almost admitted defeat in his bid for a fourth win in the annual Order of Merit, with Francesco Molinari 1.4 million points ahead of Tommy Fleetwood in second place.
“Francesco has got a big lead over all of us,” he added. “I feel like I need one win, maybe two out of the next three, to have any sort of a chance.
“I need to play some very, very good golf over these next few weeks to at least have a chance. If I can go to Dubai with a mathematical chance of winning, you never know what can happen – but it’s a long shot.”
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