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Rory McIlroy wants to turn his enforced absence from the European Tour to his advantage with victory in the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
McIlroy missed the first two events of The Final Series – he had not intended to play in the third – to prepare for his upcoming court case with a former management company, but secured a second Race to Dubai title in three years on Sunday when none of his three nearest rivals were able to win the Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The 25 year old could therefore be forgiven for having something of a relaxed attitude at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week, but he insisted that will not be the case.
"I'm very proud to have won The Race to Dubai again, the second time in three years, and not having to do anything this week I guess is an added bonus," said McIlroy, who secured the title in 2012 by winning this event with birdies at the last five holes.
"But at the same time it would be nice to pick up two trophies on Sunday and not just one. I'm still very motivated to go out there this week and perform well.
"I still want to play really well this week and try and win this tournament, because there would be no point in me showing up if I thought that I had already won something and was just here for a good time. (It would) make it an even better time if I won.
"It would be nice to cap off the season with another win here and I feel like I'm probably a little fresher than most of the guys as well. I think there's a few jaded minds and bodies getting off that plane from Turkey the other night. Hopefully I can use that to my advantage and put in a good performance this week."
Despite his legal worries, McIlroy believes he has kept his game in good enough shape to justify being favourite for a fifth victory of the season, ahead of defending champion Henrik Stenson.
"The last week or so I really put my head down and focused on my golf and everything like that. So that's been great," he added.
"I've actually felt like I've had a really good little bit of preparation coming into this event. I feel good with my game and hopefully I've done enough work to be ready for Thursday."
Although McIlroy sits on top of the Official World Golf Rankings, he says he can improve his game.
“I always feel like I can get better, even if the improvements are not that noticeable. You mightn't be able to see them. They mightn't be obvious improvements. They might be little things I've tried to improve, and I feel like I've gotten better at. But there's always things that you can do to try and get better,” he said.
“But, you know, for me right now, it's just about fine tuning everything that I have because I feel like I am in a really good place with my game and it's just about trying to keep that level of consistency as high as possible.”
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