Rory McIlroy is thinking of his father, Gerry McIlroy, after winning his eighth Race to Dubai title during the DP World Tour.
“He’s been in the hospital for the last two months,” Rory, 37, revealed while speaking emotionally about his father’s health according to a video shared by the DP World Tour shows. “[He] underwent a huge operation at the end of September and he’s recovering well, thankfully. But when I left to come up here to the Middle East, I went up to Cleveland to see him before I went, and he said to me, ‘Go win the Race to Dubai.’”
He added while becoming emotional, “This one’s for him.”
Rory took home the season-long DP World Tour title, while Tyrrell Hatton won the World Tour Championship on Sunday, November 15. After the tournament, Rory reflected on his relationship with his father.
“My dad is a massive part of my life and has been my biggest supporter, [and he] is the one that got me into the game and the one that told me to follow my dreams and never give up and never think that you’re not good enough or you’re not big enough,” he said, according to the DP World Tour.
Rory shared that his father’s health journey has “obviously been difficult,” adding, “He’s been living with this for a while, for 18 months, and it got to the point where the last resort was he needed a transplant. So he had a double lung transplant in September. Thankfully, the operation was a success and he’s recovering well.”
Rory shared that it’s “been a stressful time” for their family, adding that he spent nine days in the intensive care unit with Gerry, 67, in Cleveland. Rory was initially hesitant about traveling to play.
“If things were not looking as good as they were, I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable traveling or being too far away, but he’s got an amazing team up there, and the doctors and nurses are absolutely incredible,” he said. “He’s been making a really steady recovery. I went up to see him before I left for Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago, and he said to me, ‘Rors, go and win me the Race to Dubai.’”
He continued, “So that was in my head for the last two weeks, and I really wanted to do it for him and I know he’s in his hospital bed and he would have been watching this morning. It was nice to be able to get it done for him.”
