NORTHERN IRELAND'S leading golfers Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell made significant moves up the world rankings at the weekend.
McIlroy, who now leads the Race to Dubai standings, has moved up to a career-high 13th after his second placed finish in Fanling while McDowell, who tied for 18th in Hong Kong, has creeped back into the top 50.
The Portrush golfer needs a strong finish at the Dubai World Championship to secure a place inside the world's top 50 which is essential to gain entry into the majors and the World Golf Championship events.
Despite falling ten places during the final round, it was McDowell's second consecutive tournament where he had got into contention.
"I couldn't get the putter going today," said McDowell after his level par final round.
"But it was still a good week for me. I'm feeling good in most aspects of my game, and some decent work before Thursday and I will be in good shape for the big one.
"The greens were quite grainy and I just didn't putt well enough in Hong Kong. I had an outside chance to win although I left myself a bit of work to do on Sunday. But there were also important world ranking points up for grabs, and I let a few slip by."
Meanwhile, McIlroy is back in Dubai and keen to relive the good memories of his win at the Dubai Desert Classic back in February.
Commenting on his website McIlroy claimed that he would be; 'staying in the same place, eating in the same restaurants and hopefully getting the same result!!"
He added;" I'm going into this week feeling confident especially as I'm in the best position out of anyone to win the Race To Dubai and the easiest way for me to do that is to win the tournament so that's I'll be concentrating on.
"If I can go out there and play as well as I have done for the last couple of weeks and keep grinding out good scores then hopefully I'll be able to do it.
"I feel as if I'm playing well enough – I think in my last five rounds 26 under par so I'm coming into the event with a bit of form."
The 20-year-old also revealed some of the thought processes behind his decision to take up his US PGA Tour card next year.
"After I'd played in all the events in America this year I had earned enough money to take up membership and I had until the 1st December to make my decision," he said.
"I was thinking about it and took advice from a few people and got a few different opinions and at the end of the day I had to make the decision myself.
"I really enjoy America, I seem to play well over there in real quality fields and I want to become a better player and the only way to do that is by playing the PGA Tour and playing in their great events over there. I'm young enough to do it right now and have no ties – apart from Holly and Theo at home – so I can travel and play where I want to.
"On the European Tour International Schedule I reckon I'll play about 15 events, the WGC events and four Majors count on both tours so that's 8 events on each side of the Atlantic to start with so it's going to be a busy and exciting 2010 for me."
The Portrush golfer needs a strong finish at the Dubai World Championship to secure a place inside the world's top 50 which is essential to gain entry into the majors and the World Golf Championship events.
Despite falling ten places during the final round, it was McDowell's second consecutive tournament where he had got into contention.
"I couldn't get the putter going today," said McDowell after his level par final round.
"But it was still a good week for me. I'm feeling good in most aspects of my game, and some decent work before Thursday and I will be in good shape for the big one.
"The greens were quite grainy and I just didn't putt well enough in Hong Kong. I had an outside chance to win although I left myself a bit of work to do on Sunday. But there were also important world ranking points up for grabs, and I let a few slip by."
Meanwhile, McIlroy is back in Dubai and keen to relive the good memories of his win at the Dubai Desert Classic back in February.
Commenting on his website McIlroy claimed that he would be; 'staying in the same place, eating in the same restaurants and hopefully getting the same result!!"
He added;" I'm going into this week feeling confident especially as I'm in the best position out of anyone to win the Race To Dubai and the easiest way for me to do that is to win the tournament so that's I'll be concentrating on.
"If I can go out there and play as well as I have done for the last couple of weeks and keep grinding out good scores then hopefully I'll be able to do it.
"I feel as if I'm playing well enough – I think in my last five rounds 26 under par so I'm coming into the event with a bit of form."
The 20-year-old also revealed some of the thought processes behind his decision to take up his US PGA Tour card next year.
"After I'd played in all the events in America this year I had earned enough money to take up membership and I had until the 1st December to make my decision," he said.
"I was thinking about it and took advice from a few people and got a few different opinions and at the end of the day I had to make the decision myself.
"I really enjoy America, I seem to play well over there in real quality fields and I want to become a better player and the only way to do that is by playing the PGA Tour and playing in their great events over there. I'm young enough to do it right now and have no ties – apart from Holly and Theo at home – so I can travel and play where I want to.
"On the European Tour International Schedule I reckon I'll play about 15 events, the WGC events and four Majors count on both tours so that's 8 events on each side of the Atlantic to start with so it's going to be a busy and exciting 2010 for me."
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