10/14/2026 10:58:00
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10/14 09:00 CDT Rory McIlroy arrives in India with a new fashion style and
renewed hope in Race to Dubai finale
Rory McIlroy arrives in India with a new fashion style and renewed hope in Race
to Dubai finale
NEW DELHI (AP) --- Since completing the career Grand Slam, Rory McIlroy has
been constantly looking for new ways to inject some freshness and spark into
his golf.
Turns out two of his longtime Ryder Cup teammates are providing some
inspiration.
For this week's DP World India Championship, McIlroy has brought along a new
look --- baggy golf pants.
After all, Tommy Fleetwood has been wearing them for a while.
"I have watched and I have admired Tommy Fleetwood over the past year," McIroy
said, with a smile, on Wednesday's DP World Locker Room show about his style
that has generated plenty of chatter in New Delhi this week.
"And in my everyday life, when I don't have to wear what is my golf uniform, I
wear a lot of wide-legged pants. It is the in-thing, the fashionable thing."
But how, McIlroy was asked, do they feel to play golf in?
"These hit a little low, maybe a little short ... I understand they are maybe
not as well-fitting as they need to be," he said, "but they are a work in
progress."
Also in the works for the Northern Irishman is a replica of what he calls his
"performance trailer" that he uses in the United States to aid his fitness and
recovery during and between PGA Tour events, in an effort to gain an edge over
rivals.
Now, he wants one for when he plays on the European tour, too.
McIlroy said that idea came from tennis great Novak Djokovic but also fellow
golfer Justin Rose.
"I decided to pull the trigger on it when Justin won in Memphis last year,"
McIlroy said. "He's 45 years old, playing great, contending in major
championships, and at that time I was 36. I was like, I want to play really
well for the next 10 years --- I feel like I need to do something like this."
McIlroy hopes to have that up and running by the summer of 2027 --- by which
time, who knows, he might have a record-tying eighth Order of Merit title that
crowns the year's No. 1 player on the European tour.
There are four events remaining in this season's Race to Dubai and McIlroy will
play in three of them, starting in India.
He is third in the standings, behind Patrick Reed and Eugenio Chacarra, but
there's little between the three players and plenty of points on offer in the
season-ending events in India, South Korea, Abu Dhabi and finally Dubai.
While Reed has stumbled of late thanks to an injury-prompted withdrawal at the
BMW PGA Championship and a missed cut at the Spanish Open, Chacarra is
finishing fast by climbing above McIlroy thanks to a tie for third at the
French Open and a tie for second in Spain.
"It's still anyone's game," Reed said Wednesday.
The American said he was swinging freely after the shoulder injury he sustained
at Wentworth. He didn't play in France or at the Alfred Dunhill Links
Championship and returned to shoot 73-71 in Spain, failing to make the weekend.
"For me, I was itching about getting back and getting out and playing," Reed
said. "Did I come back too early? Who knows. At the end of the day the good
thing is I can't hurt it worse, and because of that, I have the confidence and
the comfort level to come out here and execute and perform at the highest
level."
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See AP's full golf coverage here
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