Seven Irish players in the top 60 Race to Dubai rankings arrive in the United Arab Emirates this week - for the final event of the European Tour season – to play the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World at Jumeirah Golf Estates. Six of the players have a bit part this week with the major focus on the US Open Champion, Graeme McDowell, and his chase for the number 1 spot – which he hopes to wrestle from Germany’s, Martin Kaymer.
The rest of the Irish cast for this week includes Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clark, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin and Peter Lawrie.
This season has seen Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell win a first Major Championship each as well as sharing Europe’s exciting Ryder Cup victory in Wales. This week one of them will end the season as Number one.
What began as a 48-tournament marathon covering 27 destinations since last December has been reduced to a 72-hole sprint finish for the line in Dubai, with Kaymer and McDowell the only players in the 60-strong field still living the dream of being crowned European Number One on Sunday.
Going into this week’s season-ending Dubai World Championship presented by DP World at Jumeirah Golf Estates, 25 year old Kaymer leads 31 year old McDowell by €290,910 at the head of The Race to Dubai Rankings. With a first prize of €910,348 on offer to the winner over the Greg Norman-designed Earth course, the permutation is simple – if either Kaymer or McDowell triumphs on Sunday, they will be crowned The Race to Dubai champion for 2010.
Kaymer, from Germany, captured the US PGA Championship, the KLM Open and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as he reaped a rich autumn harvest which propelled him into the lead in The Race to Dubai to add to his win in Abu Dhabi earlier in the campaign.
Northern Ireland’s McDowell endured a fallow spell after claiming The Celtic Manor Wales Open and the US Open Championship in consecutive appearances in June, and for a long time it appeared that Kaymer would not be overhauled in The Race to Dubai title.
However, the thrill of claiming the winning point in The Ryder Cup reignited McDowell’s challenge and a victory in the Andalucia Valderrama Masters, allied to a series of outstanding performances recently, has made the seemingly impossible possible.
Last year Lee Westwood secured the Dubai World Championship and scooped the lion’s share of the $7,5000,000 bonus pool 12 months ago.
Westwood, currently in third place in The Race to Dubai after an injury curtailed season, cannot catch Kaymer but will be relishing the opportunity to remind the leading pair what he can do when fully fit and fresh.
The same can be applied to the third Major Champion of 2010 in the field, Louis Oosthuizen, whose autumn campaign has been interrupted by injury. The South African, whose moment of glory came at St Andrews in July, is now back in action and ready to improve on his current ranking of tenth in The Race to Dubai.
With the leading 15 players sharing the bonus pool – the new Number One will receive €1,092,418 – there is plenty to play for in the season’s finale, and Kaymer, who had just recovered from injury to compete in Dubai last year, is looking forward to leading from the front this time.
He said: “It’s been a fantastic season for me. To win my first Major and to be part of the winning Ryder Cup Team is way above my expectations, to be honest. But obviously when you win a Major, you know that you can win any tournament in the world.
“I’ve played very well the last few months and going into this week, I feel confident about my game. Hopefully I can play well, and make sure that I win The Race to Dubai somehow.”
McDowell has squeezed a first, tied third and fifth place from his last four starts in a last-ditch endeavour to catch and overtake Kaymer and he commented: “I am very happy with my form and my energy levels going into Dubai.
“Of course I am within touching distance now and I’ve got to play well, simple as that” added McDowell, who knows that outright victory in the Dubai World Championship would relegate Kaymer to the runner-up position in The Race to Dubai.
“I can’t control Martin’s golf ball – only mine” continued McDowell. “I’m going to go and play my own game and see what happens. I have a few things to brush up on but, all in all, I’m feeling really good about my game. I’m playing well enough to win and that’s all I can ask.”
Westwood, who finished second behind Italian Francesco Molinari in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai after an injury time-out, returns to the scene of his triumph following another short break in order to give his leg injury more time to heal.
Both Westwood and Molinari can still theoretically finish second in The Race to Dubai while England’s Ian Poulter, after a sequence of tied 13th, tied sixth and first in the UBS Hong Kong Open last weekend, is the form horse going into the final furlong of the Race.
Poulter has climbed to fifth place and is in line for a nice bonus cheque while there is no disguising the talent of the Italian teenager Matteo Manassero, whose joint runner-up finish in Hong Kong has lifted him to 29th place in The Race to Dubai Rankings with rookie season earnings of €846,705 to date.
The leading 60 players now knuckle down to business, each with the aim of capturing the Dubai World Championship, even if they are not in the privileged position of Kaymer and McDowell going for the big prize.
