Rory McIlroy is aiming to end the season on a high with victories in his last two tournaments of the campaign.
The FedEx Cup winner tees up this week at the WGC HSBC Champions in his penultimate event of 2019.
McIlroy's previously finished inside the top five in Shanghai on four different occasions and he's confident of having a good week:
"Sheshan has become probably one of the best venues and courses that we come to every year. I've always enjoyed playing here. I've played well. I feel like the course suits my game, and I feel like this tournament, I started coming here in 2009.
"Ten years, the course and the tournament have kept on improving and progressing. It's turned into one of the better events that we play every year, so excited to be back. I didn't play so well last year here, so I've got a good opportunity to play well this week.
"You know, still quite a bit to play for until the end of the year. I want to get as many World Ranking points as I possibly can and try to close that gap on the number one spot. So you know, pretty motivated coming into the week".
McIlroy hasn't won a WGC event since 2015 but the world number two is happy with his season to date:
"Yeah, I feel like this year's went very well. I played very consistently. I think last week in Japan was my 17th Top-10 of the year, so I've played consistent golf and I've won a few times, as well. It was great to get the win at THE TOUR Championship and win the FedExCup.
"Yeah, look, I started this year maybe like 8th or 9th in the world, so to see that progress and to play so well and get myself back up to No. 2 with a chance of closing that gap, and I don't think I'll be able to quite close it as -- get there by the end of this year. But if I play well the next few weeks, you know, I'll have a great platform going into next year.
"I've achieved most things that I've wanted to this year, and as you said, once I end this calendar year, I'm going to take a couple months off, December and January, and reset goals and assess where I'm at, and then go again.
"But I'm happy with where everything is, and yeah, just want to finish the year off strongly because I feel the year that I've had deserves a finish like that, and you know, enjoy my time off. But as you said, reset and set new goals for next year like I always do."
