Rory McIlroy’s stunning finish in last week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai has reignited The Race to Dubai as the season-long odyssey on The European Tour enters the home straight.
The Northern Irishman needed a top five finish at the Sheshan International Golf Club to keep long-time leader Luke Donald within his sights, but at a mere level par for the day and outside the top ten with only four holes of his final round to go, it looked a remote possibility.
However the reigning US Open Champion showed his class with a superb finale to his Sunday outing, birdieing the 15th, 16th and 18th holes for a final round 69, a 15 under par total of 273 and, crucially, a tie for fourth place in the tournament.
In third place in The Race to Dubai, McIlroy might still be €1,131,513 behind Donald – who is currently at home in the United States with wife Diane awaiting the birth of their second child – but he has confirmed his entry into the UBS Hong Kong Open at Fanling Golf Club, the week before the season-ending Dubai World Championship presented by DP World at the Jumeirah Golf Estates from December 8-11.
By doing that, the equation is simple for the Ulsterman – who moved up to a career-high of Number Two on the Official World Golf Ranking thanks to his showing in China – he has to win in Hong Kong and Dubai to have a chance of becoming The 2011 Race to Dubai champion.
If those victories transpire, Donald would need a top 12 finish at Jumeirah to deny McIlroy and complete his unique double of winning the Money Lists on both sides of the Atlantic.
It might seem a tough ask on paper but not when you consider McIlroy’s form at the two events in question which is more than impressive: having finished second, second and sixth in the last three years in Hong Kong, and third and fifth over the last two years in Dubai. He also has been in inspirational form of late, finishing third, third, second and fourth in his last four outings. So it is possible.
Aside from McIlroy, the main focus at Sheshan was, of course, on the man who came through to triumph in such spectacular fashion, Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who won The 2010 Race to Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates last November.
Like the Northern Irishman, Kaymer did not look like one of the players who would make a mark at the top of the final leaderboard in Shanghai when he reached the turn on Sunday in only two under par 34. But a truly stunning back nine of 29 which featured seven birdies, saw him home in 63 to post a three shot winning margin over Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson.
In picking up the first place cheque for €842,218, Kaymer moved ahead of McIlroy into second place in The Race to Dubai but, to now catch Donald, he will have to literally do ‘a Donald.’
Keen to win the US PGA Tour Money List for the first time this year, Donald posted a late entry for the Tour’s final event of the season – the Children’s Miracle Networks Hospitals Classic in Florida earlier this month – after his nearest challenger Webb Simpson finished second the week before in The McGladrey Classic in Georgia to move ahead of him.
It proved to be a good decision for the Englishman who produced a memorable victory at Lake Buena Vista, as Simpson finished in a tie for sixth place, to move back ahead of the American to win the Money List for the first time.
Therefore, the mathematics for Kaymer are straightforward. At €1,026,130 behind Donald and with the winner’s cheque in Dubai just under €1 million, the German will have to enter another European Tour event between now and the Dubai World Championship if he is to have a chance of winning The Race to Dubai for the second consecutive season. However, given his proposed schedule at this present time, that scenario looks unlikely.
Reigning Masters Tournament champion Charl Schwartzel and England’s Lee Westwood, are currently fourth and fifth in The Race to Dubai but, given the amount of money they are behind Donald – and the fact the next tournament for them both is the Dubai World Championship – they are out of the running to be Number One.
It therefore leaves the pursuit of Luke firmly in the hands of Rory.
