Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose are all set for the final dip to the tape as the Race to Dubai reaches its dramatic conclusion this week at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The European Tour's season-long battle to be crowned Number One has never failed to produce entertainment but this year the Race to Dubai has truly lived up to its name.
In Fleetwood we have had the marathon runner: 23 events, 17 cuts made, two wins, three top threes, five top tens and an accumulation of points that has seen him sit top of the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex for the bulk of the season.
Rose has been the sprinter: 11 appearances with nine made cuts but back-to-back wins in his last two events and a second-placed finish at the Masters Tournament to go with a top five at the Rolex Series Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation.
They arrive at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week for the eighth Rolex Series event as the only two players with their fate entirely in their own hands, knowing that a win would see them lift the Harry Vardon Trophy.
Fleetwood holds the edge by 256,737 points, knowing that as long as Rose does not finish in the top five and Sergio Garcia - the only other man with a chance of taking the crown - does not win, he will win the Race to Dubai regardless of where he finishes.
Rose and Garcia are both Major Championship and Ryder Cup winners while Fleetwood is just beginning to make his name on the world stage and, while the Englishman is full of respect for his illustrious opponents, he is not intimidated by sharing top billing.
"It's not intimidating or it's not even stressful in any way," he said. "I'm not sure nervous is the right word but it's like the good kind of nerves where you're trying to win the Race to Dubai. It's by no means a burden or stressful.
"It's actually an amazing opportunity and it's a massive privilege to be able to actually be playing. I'm turning up tomorrow, final event of the year and I'm playing with Justin Rose trying to win a Race to Dubai. Sergio could win it as well. Sergio, Justin Rose and then me - that's pretty cool, that.
"I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's brilliant for myself, I think it's brilliant for people that have been around as a team this year. I think it will be great for my mum and dad.
There's a list of very, very great players that have won the Race to Dubai. If it's my turn, then that's amazing, that's brilliant - Tommy Fleetwood
"Trying to win a Race to Dubai, being around them people that we've watched play Majors and big events and play Ryder Cups throughout the year. They have essentially done things that I want to do and this is one of my first times, experience, in trying to win one of the biggest titles in the world with the best players in the world. I'm very excited about it.
"There's a list of very, very great players that have won the Race to Dubai. If it's my turn, then that's amazing, that's brilliant.
"Whatever happens, I've never done this before and it will have been a brilliant experience no matter what. I obviously clearly want to win. Don't know how many chances you're going to get in your career to do it.
"I'd love to add my name to that list. It will be a perfect way to end a year that's been amazing for me. It would mean a lot. There's no denying it or getting away from it. There's no saying, 'I just want to play my own game and not think about it'. I think that's just pretty much impossible."
Rose has seen it all before and finishing in second place on his own would be enough to claim the prize as long as Fleetwood does not win.
The Englishman won the Order of Merit in 2007 before going on to add a US Open, two World Golf Championships and an Olympic gold medal to his ever-impressive CV.
He has come a long way from missing his first 21 professional cuts after bursting onto the scene as an amateur at the 1998 Open Championship and is on the brink of joining names such as Major champions Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam, and eight-time winner Colin Montgomerie as multiple winners of the Harry Vardon trophy.
"I still think it's one of my biggest achievements in the game," he said. "Any time you beat world class players over the course of a year, it means often a lot more than it does winning in a week.
"For my name to go on a trophy that was dominated by Europe's greatest, when I look at that: Faldo and Seve and Lyle and Woosie and Monty and Monty and Monty and Monty and Monty and Monty and Monty and Monty and Monty, and then to see my name go alongside Ernie Els and Retief (Goosen) and guys like that, it's a list that's certainly very, very impressive.
"And when I won it, it kind of felt to me at the time, looking back, it was as if my potential as a kid, the Birkdale boy, I felt like I had really achieved something to justify some of that early hype by winning the Order of Merit back then."
Any time you beat world class players over the course of a year, it means often a lot more than it does winning in a week - Justin Rose
Despite what is on the line this week, there is no intense or bitter rivalry between Fleetwood and Rose with the duo having weekly conversations and Rose offering the man 11 years his junior at 26 guidance throughout the season.
They will still tee it up as playing partners on Thursday afternoon with the burning desire that champions have to beat each other, however, so who are they backing?
Rose: "I still take Tommy's chances."
Fleetwood: "I would put my money on me."
The finish line is in sight.
