Hard work paid off in stunning fashion for Rory McIlroy in Shanghai as a fourth-place finish at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions thrust the Holywood ace firmly into contention for the Race to Dubai title.

McIlroy, 20, carded a brilliant course-record final round of nine-under-par 63 to finish three shots adrift of winner Phil Mickelson.

And after continuing his timely strong finish to the season, McIlroy trimmed Lee Westwood's lead at the top of the Order of Merit to less than £47,000 with just two events remaining after leapfrogging Martin Kaymer into second place.

But even with Westwood and McIlroy heading to Hong Kong this week as Kaymer heads to Germany to rest and for further treatment on his foot injury, the race for the Harry Vardon trophy will still go down to the season-ending Dubai World Championship later this month.

"It certainly gives me momentum going into the next two weeks," said McIlroy. "I'm feeling a lot better about my game than I was. Hopefully, it's a springboard into the next two weeks and I'm looking forward to it.

"I've been working hard, my ball striking wasn't the best over the first few days. I hit it poorly on Thursday and as the week progressed I've hit it gradually better and better and then everything just clicked into place.

"I hit my irons well and got it up and down when I needed to. It was just a very, very solid final round."

McIlroy lit up the final-round leaderboard with seven birdies and the only bogey of his round over his first eight holes, in sharp contrast to Mickelson and Tiger Woods who found low scoring tough.

The birdies did initially dry up for McIlroy on the back nine, although he still finished strongly with three shots picked up over his final five holes to leap up the leaderboard ahead of world number one Woods, who struggled to a level-par 72 and finished sixth.

"I wasn't happy with my game. I was a little bit tired, a bit grumpy. But I worked at it and I worked at it and it's coming around," added McIlroy.

"And it was really nice to see a few go in. It was great to shoot a low number."

After winning his maiden European Tour title with a wire-to-wire victory in Dubai at the start of the year, McIlroy is in the hunt for a maiden order of merit title in just his second full season.

Consistent performer Westwood, the 2000 European number one who finished third last year, was eighth in Shanghai after failing to match the heights of Saturday's seven-under-par 65 as he slipped down from fifth with a closing 71.

"There were some good points during the week," Westwood said. "I just played very poorly in the final round. I hardly hit a good shot.

"It wasn't quite there and there were also a lot of distractions."