McIlroy in dreamland

Three years ago Rory McIlroy was sitting at home watching golf on television and thinking, ‘I’d love to be able to do that one day.’ Now, in what seems like no time at all, he is the one being watched and on Sunday could be crowned Europe’s new number one, at 20 the youngest since Seve Ballesteros in 1976. And there is more. The Northern Ireland star could also become the world number six and more than 1.5 million dollars richer.”I’m sort of just living out my dream and I couldn’t be happier,” said McIlroy on the eve of the inaugural Dubai World Championship, where the first prize of over 830,000 euro would also earn him an Order of Merit bonus. “To be sitting here now 13th in the world, leading the Race to Dubai, I’m just really enjoying it,” he said. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do. If I can play the rest of my career happy and realising how lucky I am to be playing a great game like this for a living then I think I’ll be doing okay.” Taking the tournament title is obviously the dream way of clinching the money list title, but because of his consistency this season McIlroy could even stay top of the table by finishing 58th out of 58 this weekend. Lee Westwood is his closest challenger and cannot afford to finish worse than seventh if he is to recapture the crown he won in 2000. German Martin Kaymer is in third and will miss out if he does not make the top four, while Ross Fisher, the only other player left in the race, has to be first or second.