Rory McIlroy gets Final Series exemption

The Northern Irishman missed out on scheduled events due to injury.

Rory McIlroy has been given a special exemption by the European Tour which will allow him to compete for the Race to Dubai title.

Following McIlroy's ankle injury sustained prior to the Open Championship, the Tour concluded that it was not possible for the Northern Irishman to have met the required number of tournaments to feature in their end-of-season Final Series events.

In a statement, Keith Pelley, the Tour's Chief Executive, said medical reports were reviewed before making the decision to give McIlroy exemption to the 13 tournaments per season ruling.

He said: "These are exceptional circumstances and I have taken this situation and the resulting decision very seriously.

"I have spent the last two weeks examining every angle and every possible solution and I have spoken with Rory and his team, as well as independent medical advisers and some prominent players."

The four-time major champion was set to meet the 13 tournament rule to compete for the Race to Dubai title before rupturing his ankle ligaments playing football with friends.

As a result, he missed the Scottish Open, Open Championship and WGC Bridgestone Invitational, with fellow Irishman Shane Lowry winning the latter event.

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Due to McIlroy's exceptional circumstances, the Tour have agreed with him that he will now play only 12 events, meaning he needs to compete in three more to meet the revised obligations.

McIlroy won the Race to Dubai title last year and currently leads this year's standings. This week he will play in the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup play-off event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, which starts on Friday and finishes on Monday.

To win the Race to Dubai, players must compete in The Final Series, which consists of four events - the BMW Masters, WGC-HSBC Champions, Turkish Airlines Open and DP World Tour Championship.

Danny Willett is in second place in the rankings, with Louis Oosthuizen and Justin Rose in third and fourth respectively.