Ahead of the DP World Tour Championship, the fifth and final Rolex Series of the 2022 season, golf commentator Dominik Holyer looks ahead to the climax of the race to top the DP World Tour Rankings in partnership with Rolex.
The DP World Tour Championship is a fantastic finale to the season and this year’s edition promises to be a cracking prospect. The ingredients are all there as we return to Jumeirah Golf Estates for the 14th edition.
You have arguably got two of the most in-form players in the world in Rory McIlroy and Ryan Fox in the field at the Earth Course. McIlroy got back to World Number One with victory at the PGA TOUR’s CJ Cup on his last start at the end of October and arrives in Dubai rested, which hasn’t always been the case coming here. He understandably seems very confident with his game as he looks to finish off his season in style and retain that optimism going into the new year.
Fox has won twice this season but in truth he could have won four or five titles. What he has been able to do - and you don’t see it from a lot of players beside the really top golfers on the world stage - is to maintain that form for a long stretch of time. He had a small dip in results over the summer and then he had the disappointment of missing out on a pick for the Presidents Cup. He seems to have used that as motivation to spur him on and has since won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to go along with his title in Ras al Khaimah earlier in the year. He played brilliantly last week at the Nedbank Golf Challenge to finish runner-up to Tommy Fleetwood, and despite narrowly missing out on another title, he will have taken consolation in significantly narrowing McIlroy’s lead at the top of the DP World Tour Rankings.
Both McIlroy and Fox are different players in style, but the New Zealander is not going to be intimidated with the distance that Rory hits the ball. I don’t believe they have previously played together but it should be a good battle between the pair, beginning when they tee off in the final group together on Thursday.
Add to the mix Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm and McIlroy each going for a hat-trick of DP World Tour Championship victories – something nobody has ever done before – and there is plenty of intrigue going into the event. All three of those players are Earth Course specialists and can call upon fantastic memories.
I had a walk around the course with Ken Brown earlier and we were both saying that after the past two years being staged during the Covid-19 pandemic there is a different buzz around the complex. It’s great to once again see such a fantastic field, which has a great balance of established figures and those who have enjoyed memorable campaigns to either qualify for the first time or be back after an absence. What is notable about this course and this event is that it tends to identify the very best players.
Quite a few players are talking about the Hero Cup in January, following on from the announcement last week that Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari will be playing captains. It’ll be very much on the minds of some this week as they look to put in an eye-catching performance to end the season. Several players we have spoken to have indicated that playing in that event in Abu Dhabi at the start of 2023 is a priority with it acting as a warm-up for the Ryder Cup next September. A good performance this week might just be enough to get a player into either of the Great Britain and Ireland or Continental Europe teams.
Fleetwood’s return to the winner’s circle in South Africa was a great storyline for European golf. He is such a well-respected and liked player amongst his peers and the general public. His mum passed away in the summer, so it has been a challenging year and I’m sure some of the emotion we saw from him on Sunday after his victory was because of that. To defend a title, even if it was after a three-year gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is a fine achievement on as tough a golf course as the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City. He’s got a good record here in Dubai too, having won the season-long rankings in 2017, and then finishing as runner-up to Rahm in the 2019 DP World Tour Championship.
Another feature of the season finale is the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award. Thriston Lawrence and Yannik Paul appear the most likely to win - both have had standout seasons, winning three titles between them. While they might not win this week, being named as the best rookie would be a great feather in either of their caps. Again, if you look at those who have won it before you realise what it has propelled them to achieve in the rest of their careers.
