Rory McIlroy returns to The European Tour at the Turkish Airlines Open as The Race to Dubai’s four-week Final Series tees off at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Belek, Antalya.
McIlroy is the current Race to Dubai Number One with a 271,214 point lead over Danny Willett, and with a combined 32 million points on offer over the coming month, the Northern Irishman will need to perform with the same level of distinction that earned his current position to keep the chasing pack at bay.
The current World Number Three was enjoying a typically dominant year before that now famous ankle injury derailed his season at the beginning of July.
Before rupturing the ligaments in his left ankle during a game of football with his friends, McIlroy won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the WGC – Cadillac Match Play as well as finishing fourth at The Masters and tied ninth at the US Open.
Willett and Irishman Shane Lowry, currently fifth in The Race to Dubai, will spearhead the pursuit of McIlroy in Turkey this week, with the Englishman and Irishman having respectively enjoyed the best seasons of their careers to date.
Victories at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the Omega European Masters, coupled with a third place finish at the WGC – Cadillac Match Play and a tie for sixth at The Open Championship, have been the highlights of a brilliant year for Willett, while Lowry truly burst on to the global stage by besting the planet’s very finest players at the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational.
With 1,333,330 points on offer to the winner of the Turkish Airlines Open, the WGC – HSBC Champions, the BMW Masters and the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, The Race to Dubai could be won by any player who plays a starring role in the Final Series, making the finale to The European Tour’s 2015 season a truly mouth-watering prospect.
