It needed a question on Lewis Hamilton to elicit Rory McIlroy’s honest opinion on what he thought about the points system on the European Tour after he won the Race to Dubai crown before the season-ending championship.
With two majors, a World Golf Championship and the BMW PGA Championship under his belt this year, the world No1 secured the honour of being called the European No1 with a tournament to spare.
McIlroy leads defending champion Henrik Stenson by 2,726,514 points, and with 1,666,600 points on offer to the winner this week, he cannot be overtaken.
The European Tour changed the format this year, with 10 million points on offer for each of the four events of the Final Series in an effort to ensure a close finish to the Race to Dubai.
When asked his thoughts on spoiling the excitement for the fans and whether the Race to Dubai format needed to be tweaked to avoid a similar situation in the future, McIlroy said: “I’m happy to spoil the party. It works just fine for me.
“Look, it is what it is. When one of the three guys (who could have had a mathematical chance of beating him with another win here) last week didn’t win, I’m reading things like: ‘Rory’s just won the Race to Dubai sitting on the couch this weekend’.
"You’ve got to remember the first 10 months of the season where I actually did play and I played very well.
“So I think if I look at the FedEx Cup, I didn’t win even though I was at the top of the money list there.
"The reshuffle of points during the Final Series might give slightly higher points to the guys, but it basically is the money list title and I’ve done enough throughout the middle part of the season to not be able to be caught with one event to spare.
“Whether they look at it again, that’s completely up to the European Tour.
"Either way works for me, whether they want to go more FedEx Cup style or whether they want to keep it like this.
"As long as I am in the mix at the end of every season, I’ll be happy enough.”
But moments later, when asked about the situation whereby Hamilton, who has won more F1 races than Nico Rosberg this season and could still lose the world title because of double points on offer in the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, McIlroy said: “I don’t think their whole season should be decided on one race with the double points.
"Lewis has won twice as many races as Nico Rosberg has, and there’s still a chance that Nico might win.
“It makes it exciting at the end of the season. It makes it exciting for the fans, but I’m sure Lewis doesn’t think it’s that exciting right now.
"I’m sure no matter what the outcome, if I play well enough or if he drives well enough, you’re going to do enough to win.
“Hopefully for him, it all works out and he does come out on top because he’s definitely the deserving champion of this year.”
McIlroy, who will tee off with Stenson on the opening day at 12:30, hasn’t played a tournament since the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in the first week of October, pulling out of the first two Final Series events in Shanghai to concentrate on his upcoming legal battle against his former management company.
"But he feels he’ll have an advantage for being fresh, and is confident he has done enough work over the past 10 days practicing in Dubai.
“The last week or so, I really put my head down and focused on my golf.
"I’ve actually felt like I’ve had a really good bit of preparation coming into this event,” added McIlroy.
“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 are a few jaded minds and bodies getting off that plane from Turkey the other night. Hopefully, I can use that to my advantage.”
The Northern Irishman said he was intent on collecting both the trophies on Sunday and added that he has learnt how to deal with off-course distractions much better.
“I’m very proud to have won the Race to Dubai again, and not having to do anything this week I guess is an added bonus,” he added.
“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 and perform well.
“I’m better at compartmentalising between stuff that’s happening off the course and then being able to focus on what’s going on the course.”
