Victory in the inaugural Race to Dubai, and a cheque for $1.5million, would dish out big-enough bragging rights to satisfy most 20-year-olds.

But Rory McIlroy isn’t your average 20-year-old. And the young gun will only be satisfied once he’s fired down Tiger Woods and Co on the US Tour next term.

The Northern Irishman is the current Race leader and hot favourite to win the rebranded Order of Merit after the Dubai World Championship (DWC) this weekend.

But having announced last week that he intends to take up US Tour membership for 2010, it’s clear golf’s man-of-the-moment already has his eyes fixed on the future - beyond Sunday evening. And while he definitely wouldn’t turn his nose up at victory over Race rivals Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer
and Ross Fisher, toppling American aces is now McIlroy’s main motivation.

“Most of the events I’ll play on over there will have the best fields in golf,” the world No.13 said on the eve of the first round on the Earth course.

“Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker; you have all the best players in the world.

“At the end of the day, I want to challenge myself against the best and the only way of doing that is by playing in the best fields possible.”

McIlroy is nothing if not confident, and even though he has ignored the fact there are more Europeans than Americans in the top 50 of the world rankings (19 against 17), it’s easy to see why he wants to take on Tiger on a regular basis. And he hopes his American adventure will ensure he’s even tougher to beat when playing back in Europe.

“I think I’ll become a better player by playing more over there; I’ll be playing with better players, which obviously you can learn from,” added the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic champion

The Northern Irishman’s believes in himself, and he revealed it is that belief that led him to ignore the advice from close friends Westwood and Darren Clarke to stay in Europe. Both have tried, and failed, to conquer the US while playing in Europe.

But McIlroy said: “I had lunch with Jeev (Milkha Singh) and he said: ‘If you want to (play on US Tour) why don’t you?’ That probably swung it for me.”

Young gun is in groove at right time
Rory Mcilroy has issued an ominous warning to his Race to Dubai rivals, claiming he’s playing his best golf of the season at just the right time.

The world No.13 leads heading into the Dubai World Championship today and will be teeing it up at the Earth course off the back of great performances at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai and Hong Kong. And McIlroy warned: “Fourth in the World Golf Championships (Shanghai) was my best-ever finish in one of those and then second last week again for the second time in a season.

“So, yeah I’m coming in here with a good bit of form and hopefully I can give myself another chance to win this week.”

However, such is the way the Earth course is set up - big wide fairways and big greens - McIlroy says he won’t be able to run away with the title like he did at the Dubai Desert Classic in February.

“A lot of the guys will be hitting in the same place from tees to fairways,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will actually get away from the field.”