It’s official; Rory McIlroy has confirmed that he will contest the 2020 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
McIlroy indicated his intentions to tee-up in Ireland’s premier event ahead of this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
There has been speculation in recent week’s that the current World No. 2 would return to the tournament he captured in such spectacular manner at the K Club in 2016 but now we have confirmation from the man himself, and this after the controversy of earlier this year when McIlroy earned little favour with a move to skip competing at Lahinch.
“The Irish Open is always going to be, not just a possibility, but you know, I felt that my best preparation for The Open Championship this year was to play the Scottish Open and not play the one before. Obviously in hindsight, I probably should have played at Lahinch,” he said smiling.
“But you live and you learn. You make these decisions and you’ve got to live with them.
“Yeah, I’ll be playing The Irish Open next year. I most likely won’t play Abu Dhabi or Dubai. I’m going to take basically all of December and most of January off and start in the States, probably, and give myself that time to sort of rest and reset, and then go again.
“So, I think going forward, you’re going to see most of the top guys doing similar things to me.”
McIlroy was also asked if he was aware of a date for the hosting of the 2020 Irish Open.
“No, I don’t know what date it will be but I know they are tossing around a few dates,” he said.
“I do know that if the WGC – FedEx Invitational in the States goes up against the Irish Open, it will hurt the Irish Open but I am hoping that scenario does not eventuate.”
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