McIlroy wants to beat Monty's record

Rory McIlroy has set himself the long-term career target of passing Colin Montgomerie's eight Order of Merit titles on the European Tour.

Scotland's Montgomerie holds the record of eight money list titles on the European Tour, while McIlroy scuppered his chances of winning a fourth this year by pulling out of the penultimate event in the Final Series, the Turkish Airlines Open, because of security concerns.

Four-time major winner McIlroy eventually finished fifth in the Race to Dubai after a tied ninth place in the DP World Tour Championship at the weekend.

"When you see someone do something you've done before and haven't quite achieved this year, of course you want to do it again,” he told RTE.

"Of course I want to win the Race again, I've got a few more years and it would be nice to pass Monty. That will be a nice little target to aim for and hopefully I can get my fourth next year.

"I know if I win tournaments and play well in the big events that these things sort of happen in the process."

The Northern Ireland golfer, who feels him form this year outside the majors has been "pretty good", says he will continue to work on his putting with coach Phil Kenyon during the winter break.

"It's something I have to keep on top of," he added. "Phil is going to come out to Dubai with me for a few days when I come back in December.

"It would be lovely to go into the Christmas break and not really touch a club, but I know that if I want to hit the ground running in 2017 I'm going to have to keep on top of it.

"But it's been a huge improvement and I wouldn't have thought I'd have achieved what I have when I was talking to you guys on the Friday at Baltusrol. I'm excited going into next year and definitely feel like I made a lot of progress.

"My major championship performances haven't been what I wanted, but if you take majors away I feel like I have played pretty well and had a good season. Next season I just need to make sure the majors match up to what I'm doing outside of them."

Photo (@Getty Images/Ross Kinnaird)

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