Danny Willett has Rory McIlroy set firmly in his sights as he heads towards the business end of the European Tour season and the lucrative, four-event Final Series.
The Englishman is 271,214 points and one place behind McIlroy in The Race to Dubai, but with 32 million points on offer over the next four weeks – starting with this week’s Turkish Airlines Open – he has plenty of opportunity to rein in his rival.
A win at the first event of the 2016 campaign, the Nedbank Golf Challenge last December, and another triumph in the Omega European Masters in July have propelled Willett into contention, and he is delighted to have the chance to etch his name into European Tour history.
“I’m in the best position I’ve ever been in going into the final four,” said the 28 year old, who will play alongside McIlroy and Shane Lowry for the first two rounds at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Antalya. “It’ll be good to play with Rory and Shane and see what we’re up against for the next four weeks.
“Rory’s in a familiar position again where he’s been the last few years. Fortunately I’m in position to chase him down.
Danny Willett
“It would be great to win the Race to Dubai. It’s nice to win tournaments and to play certain events, but winning an Order of Merit means you’ve played great over a 12 month period, not just a one-off.
“You have to play great all year and have a lot of good finishes, which is what I’ve done this year. I’ve put myself in contention a few times and not missed many cuts and just played really solid golf.
“I’m coming into the final four events with a chance to do something not many guys get to do.
"There’s only one Order of Merit winner each year. To have a chance is great.”
Willett, who was McIlroy’s team-mate in the 2007 Walker Cup, has been working hard to ensure is game is up to the task, taking a fortnight’s break from competition after the British Masters supported by Sky Sports.
“It has been two weeks a lot of grinding and making sure the game’s in good shape to come out here and get the scoring back and be sharp,” he said. “It wasn’t really two weeks off – I hit a lot of balls.
“I needed to be ready to play these four in a row. I was always going to play all four. You’d be a bit annoyed if you missed one out and got to the end of the season and finished five or ten grand behind.”
In the past, Willett’s troublesome back might have hampered his challenge, but intensive rehabilitation has left him much stronger.
“One of the big achievements this season has been the injury and keeping on top of that,” he said. “I had to make sure that was fully settled down so I could play more, practise more and train more, which has then had a massive spiral effect on keeping the consistency up, which is tough when you’re playing one week and not sure if you can play the next.
“So I got the injury under control and then ramped up the training and practice. You can get on a run without feeling injured or tired, and you can knock off results one after another.”
