MAIN EVENT
the
final
act
As the curtain is drawn on another fine season on the DP World Tour, two players will battle it out for overall honours
By BRENDAN BARRATT
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The Women’s Open tees off at Royal Porthcawl
By any metric it's been a dream year for Rory McIlroy (pictured below). He's notched up wins in the Players Championship, Masters, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am and his home championship, the Irish Open. He's also enjoyed a rare away victory in the Ryder Cup, playing a leading role for Team Europe and contributing a vital three and a half points.
Through eight appearances, McIlroy has now collected 21.5 Ryder Cup points, putting him seventh on the European all-time points list and within touching distance of third spot, held by Bernhard Langer and Lee Westwood (24).
Throw in the season's earnings of $20-million and it's hard to envision things getting any better for the Northern Irishman. Yet the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai offers a significant pathway to cap off this extraordinary year, and rewrite a few records in the process.
McIlroy enters the week with a healthy Race to Dubai points advantage over England's big-hitting Marco Penge (main image), a three-time winner this year. Realistically, the season's Race to Dubai title comes down to these two players, although their paths to this point have been remarkably different.
McIlroy has played in just nine DP World Tour events this season, of which four were Majors and another, the Scottish Open, was co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour. His performances in these events are understandably heavily weighted, and have carried him to the top of the order of merit ranking.
By contrast, Penge, who needed to make a five-foot birdie putt to make the cut and retain his DP World Tour card in the Genesis Championship last year, has played in 24 tournaments, racking up three wins, one second and a third-place finish.
Starting the year ranked 440th, he's now up to 31st, and the great irony is that Penge's wonderful season will likely see the 27-year playing less on the DP World Tour next year.
'I'm playing the PGA Tour next year and hopefully I can have a great season and finish in the playoffs there and then come back to the DP World Tour and play the rest of the season here,' he said.
'I'm pretty sure I'll be in all four Majors next year, and I never would've thought that six or seven months ago. I want to keep going for more. Hopefully, I can win again before the end of the year and maybe even catch Rory.'
The smart money is on world No2 McIlroy claiming silverware in both the DP World Tour Championship and the Race to Dubai season's points race. A strong performance in Dubai would sew up a seventh Order of Merit title – and fourth in succession – for the 36-year-old, leaving him just one behind the mark set by Colin Montgomerie.
And a tournament victory, in a limited field of just 50 players, would secure a record fourth win in the tournament's 17-year history for McIlroy, edging him ahead of three-time champion Jon Rahm. Last year the Irishman shot four rounds in the 60s to win by two strokes over Rasmus Hojgaard, bringing his record around the Earth Course at Jumeirah Estates to 11 top-10 finishes in 14 starts.
THE BEST FROM SA
(Best South African finishers)
3rd
Branden Grace (2015),
Charl Schwartzel (2016)
4th
Dean Burmester (2017, 2018), Dylan Frittelli (2017)
5th
Charl Schwartzel (2011),
Louis Oosthuizen (2012), Thriston Lawrence (2023)
6th
Louis Oosthuizen (2014), Dean Burmester (2021)
8th
Branden Grace (2020)
12th
Louis Oosthuizen (2009), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (2019)
13th
Louis Oosthuizen,
Thomas Aiken (2010)
14th
Richard Sterne (2013)
24th
Oliver Bekker (2022)
30th
Thriston Lawrence (2024)
Rahm, having defected to LIV Golf, will not be there to challenge for a fourth title, but the field will comprise the top players from the DP World Tour season, including no fewer than eight of the victorious European Ryder Cup team. The only absences are those golfers who play almost exclusively on the PGA Tour – Sepp Straka, Ludwig Aberg and Shane Lowry – and Rahm.
The four South Africans set to tee it up in Dubai in search of a first South African win are 2025 tournament winners Thriston Lawrence, Shaun Norris and Jacques Kruyswijk, and 24-year-old Jayden Schaper (pictured in gallery), who has had a consistent year that included nine top-10 finishes.
While much attention will be on Race to Dubai battle, there is another important sub-plot at play. At the end of the season, the top 10 players who are not already exempt will earn their PGA Tour cards – and the chance to play for some very big purses in the US next year. Currently, Penge, Kristoffer Reitan, Adrien Saddier, John Parry, Alex Noren, Haotong Li, Daniel Brown, Jordan Smith, Martin Couvra and Laurie Canter hold these spots, but they will be pushed hard by the likes of Elvis Smylie, Joakim Lagergren and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
There's a little bit of something for everyone to play for in the DP World Tour Championship, but all eyes will be on the top and the spoils on offer for the Tour's very best.
Gallery below
CARL FOURIE / LUKE WALKER / TYRONE WINFIELD / SUNSHINE TOUR
