Ross McFarlane hailed Rory McIlroy's consistency this season and said he can add to his season's win tally at the Hong Kong Open this weekend.

The Northern Irishman has had an impressive year, winning his second major at the PGA Championship and topping the world rankings, as well as the PGA and European Tour money lists.

"This has been a very consistent season for McIlroy," McFarlane told Sky Sports News.

"I like the fact he's gone on to win his second major in such an early stage of his career. He's under 24 and has two majors under his belt - that's a superb thing for him.

"His putt to seal the PGA Championship showed his short game has got much better this year and that's why he's become a more consistent player and looks like he's going to win every time he goes out.

"My only concern is he hasn't won a lot of times. He's only won once this season on the European Tour - which was actually in America, the USPGA - and four times on the PGA Tour.

"We'll always compare McIlroy and Woods and look at them winning wonderful things in the early part of their career. But put their records together and Tiger was winning more events than McIlroy is at this time. It's been a superb season but it could have gone a little better."

Attitude

McFarlane says McIlroy has adopted a different attitude to the sport than Woods did in his younger days and reckons that could be why McIlroy hasn't turned a higher percentage of his top ten finishes into wins.

"He's not as intense as Tiger Woods," he said. "He's making sure he has a different side to himself and being himself.

"He likes the nicer things in life: travelling, friendship, getting out and about; he doesn't want to be locked away in his room.

"You have to have parity in your life, balance - and I think he has that. That's why we're seeing him at the top of the world right now, that's come from the balance he's created."

However, McFarlane believes McIlroy can improve his winning record this week in Hong Kong, where he is reigning champion, and even then add the World Tour Championship in Dubai to finish his year in style.

"He's outright favourite for both of those tournaments," he said.

"Last year he produced a miraculous shot on the last hole to win the Hong Kong Open; he holed from the front bunker and that showed to me how good this young fella was. He had taken his golf to another level.

"He's playing that well he could defend his title in Hong Kong and then go onto Dubai and win there as well."

Swoosh switch

McIlroy may find things harder at the start of 2013, though, with a club manufacturer switch from Titleist to Nike in the pipeline, reckons McFarlane.

"It will be a hugely difficult time for him," he said. "The first couple of months will be really important to see how that change comes through.

"It's like Lewis Hamilton changing cars, everything he's got in his hands will change. Ok, they can make the head shape, shaft and grip similar but the ball will be different; the spin rates and flight will be different, the distance, the feel off the club head.

"He's got to find all that information very quickly and reassess how he's going to play his game with the new equipment he has. We've seen golfers over the years struggling when they change clubs - but I don't think it will take him long."