Graeme McDowell will look to steal a march on Martin Kaymer in The Race to Dubai this week as The 2010 European Tour International Schedule moves closer to its thrilling conclusion.
The Northern Irishman travels to the UBS Hong Kong Open for his fourth tournament appearance in a row and will be keen to eat into the German’s advantage at the top with Kaymer having decided to take the penultimate week off to prepare for next week’s Dubai World Championship presented by: DP World.
McDowell closed the gap slightly after last week’s Barclays Singapore Open, a share of third place at Sentosa Golf Club giving him a cheque for €240,907 which, compared with Kaymer cheque for €76,700 for a share of tenth place, saw him cut the deficit to €367,600.
“All golfers have goals and, post Pebble Beach, my two main goals for the year were to play and win The Ryder Cup and then to win The Race to Dubai,” said McDowell. “I was lucky enough to get the first one done and the second one is the reason that I am playing five weeks in a row at the end of the season.
“I have always said I want to get to Dubai within touching distance of Martin and where a win in the tournament would mean I would win The Race to Dubai. That hasn’t changed and hopefully I can continue to make inroads this week in Hong Kong.”
“I didn’t drive the ball well at Jumeirah last year but I feel like I’ve made big steps in my golf game this year, especially my driving, so I’m looking forward to going to Dubai again and see how it sets up for this year.
“I feel really privileged to be in this position, going into the Dubai World Championship. Obviously a big week is required in Hong Kong to be as close to Martin as I can going there, considering the season he has had. So I’ll be trying my hardest to do just that.”
The Race to Dubai, however, is not simply about the top end. Merely the chance to play in the spectacular end of season showdown in the desert sees players go to great lengths to get on the flight.
One player currently outside the top 60 who exemplifies that is Christian Nilsson. Level par at the Barclays Singapore Open with five holes to play of the second round, the Swede looked to be packing his bags for home but a scintillating finish turned matters around to keep his dream alive.
The winner of the 2009 Saint-Omer Open birdied the 14th hole at Sentosa, holed his second shot from the middle of the fairway at the 15th for an eagle two and then birdied the 17th to make the cut before going on to finish in a share of 49th place.
The cheque for €18,399 helped move Nilsson up one place in The Race to Dubai from 71st to 70th and now he heads to Hong Kong looking for a big performance – like last year’s winner Gregory Bourdy – to move into the hallowed top 60.
“It is a huge deal for me to get to the Dubai World Championship,” he said. “I didn’t play last year and now that I am pretty close the desire to get there is even stronger. I didn’t have the best finish in Singapore but I made a bit of a move and if I can pick up a decent cheque in Hong Kong then you never know, I might still yet make the top 60 and get on that flight to Dubai.”
One man who did make a significant move after Singapore was Denmark’s Anders Hansen, whose second placed finish saw him move from 55th place to 23rd and now within touching distance of the top 15 who will share the Bonus Pool at the end of the Dubai World Championship.
“I was pretty sure I’d get in but if I’d missed the cut in Singapore there might have been a problem but once I made the weekend, it was a different story,” he said. “Now it is another story altogether and I’ll sit down before I go to Hong Kong, figure out where I am and then think about moving forward from there.”
