The combination of a fortuitious ankle injury, a dose of food poisoning and some very erratic putting have put Rory McIlroy's hopes of a third Race to Dubai title in four years in some doubt.

Rory McIlroy doesn’t just have to worry about the putting brilliance of a Jordan Spieth or the emergence of another ball striking monster in the Jason Day mold. Now he’s got China on his mind.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry had days to forget in the WGC HSBC Champions in China. As McIlroy shot a level par 72 and slipped 10 strokes behind leader Kevin Kisner, Lowry added a 75 to his 74 to lie 71st on five over.

Pádraig Harrington will take plenty of positives into next week's McGladrey Classic despite missing the secondary cut in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.

In golf the only mathematics that count are the numbers at the bottom of the scorecard and when Rory McIlroy sat down to do his accounts after the final round of the Honda Classic, the credit column showed a gilt-edged five wood to 11 feet at the final hole that almost balanced out the huge overspend of the previous holes in the debit column. Almost.