RIDGELAND, S.C. – Rory McIlroy has his sights set on returning to world No. 1 for the first time in more than two years as he defends his title at the CJ Cup in South Carolina.
McIlroy needs either to win this week and have reigning world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finish worse than a two-way tie for second, or he can finish second as long as Scheffler finishes worse than 34th (out of a field of 78), to return to the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking for the ninth different time in his career. To date, McIlroy’s spent a total of 106 weeks as king of the hill, relinquishing the throne on July 19, 2020, when Jon Rahm unseated him. (Scheffler has been No. 1 for 30 weeks since March 27.)
It’s been more than a decade since McIlroy claimed world No.1 for the first time after outdueling Tiger Woods to win the 2012 Honda Classic. It had been a goal of McIlroy’s ever since he had cracked the top five with a victory at the 2011 U.S. Open.
CJ Cup: Thursday tee times, how to watch
“I remember waking up the next morning and being like, ‘Is this it?’ You know, you sort of, you work towards a goal for so long and then you wake up the next day and you don’t feel any different after having achieved it,” he said. “So I think then it’s a matter of having to reframe your goals and reframe what success looks like. I think that’s one of the great things about this game, no matter how much you’ve achieved or how much success you’ve had, you always want to do something else, there’s always something else to do.”
For years, McIlroy has made a habit of checking every Sunday night the Twitter handle VC606, who has become an authority on the complex mathematical formula that weights tournaments played over the last two years on a sliding scale, so recent performances carry greater importance, and based on strength of field, for the latest movements in the rankings. Then he’ll log on to the OWGR website on Monday morning for closer inspection.
“I maybe don’t keep as much of a close eye on it as I used to, but still it’s a point of pride for all of us out there to be highly ranked and to get to No. 1 in the world at whatever you do is an unbelievable accolade,” he said.
Rory rockets on repeat 🚀
He makes his season debut this week. pic.twitter.com/rQ5A7XEBMh
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 18, 2022
To McIlroy, who won the FedEx Cup for an unprecedented third time in August, regaining the top spot would signify how far he has…
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