The 20-year-old Northern Irishman finished with a nine-under-par 63 for fourth place at the WGC-HSBC Champions on Sunday, moving above German Martin Kaymer into second place in the European rankings behind Lee Westwood.

Trailing Westwood by around $80,000 with $2.5 million on the line at Fanling this week, McIlroy could take the driving seat in the battle to scoop the $1.5 million bonus on offer for Europe’s number one at the season-ending Dubai World Championship.

“It certainly gives me a lot of momentum going into the next two weeks,” McIlroy told reporters after his closing round in Shanghai.

“I’m feeling a lot better about my game than I was at the start of the week,” added the world number 17, who admitted to being “tired and a bit grumpy” at the start of the Champions.

“Hopefully it’s a bit of a springboard into the next two weeks, and yeah, looking forward to it now.” While Briton Westwood will be making his debut in Hong Kong, McIlroy knows he has the game to go low at Fanling, having lost out in a dramatic playoff to Taiwan’s Lin Wen-tang at last year’s version of the European and Asian Tour event.

Briton Paul Casey, fifth in the Race to Dubai, has had to pull out because of a recurrence of the rib injury that sidelined him for three months earlier this year.

Casey retired early in his final round in Shanghai before heading straight to the U.S. for treatment and the 32-year-old Englishman is now doubtful for the Nov. 19-22 Dubai finale.