With the news that Rory McIlroy has claimed his fifth Race to Dubai title ahead of this year’s Tour Championship, despite only playing four non-major or non-WGC counting events this season, it begs the question of what the DP World Tour (DPWT) Order of Merit stands for anymore. Jon Rahm, sitting in 2nd behind his Ryder Cup teammate, has similarly only played two ‘regular’ events on the DPWT this season.
Spare a thought for Adrian Meronk, who has won three times in a season where he has already notched up 23 starts. The young Pole needed to finish third or better at last week’s Nedbank Challenge to keep the race alive.
Most of Rory’s points were earned with wins at the Scottish Open (1,335) and the Dubai Desert Classic in January (1,335). The story was not dissimilar last year, either. Despite not winning and only playing five regular DPWT events, the Northern Irishman was crowned Race to Dubai champion with the most minimal of fuss.
Rory is world golf’s equivalent of the guy that comes back from university every year just for Club Champs and cleans up the pro shop vouchers.
With the future of the event and indeed the tour uncertain beyond next season, I’d like to take you back to the inception of the ‘Race to Dubai’ in 2009 and to the beginning of an era of European golf that was beginning to flourish. It was the first time the European Tour had ventured away from the traditional ‘Order of Merit’ title and went with something a little flashier, a little braver.
It was a season of major change on the European side of the golfing pond. An extra $7.5 million dollars was thrown at the top 15 players thanks to Leisurecorp and the new ties with Dubai. In an eastward shift, The European Tour Group decided to headquarter itself at the brand new resort at Jumeirah Estates. Despite the ongoing credit crunch, dollars increasingly began to fly and with retrospect was a watershed moment for European competition.
It was around this time I first picked up the game and it was this golf on Sky Sports that kept me hooked throughout the cold British winters. I remember watching the inaugural ‘Dubai Championship’ as the fresh-faced 20-year-old poster boy Rory McIlroy entered the season finale leading the money list set to earn a life-changing £1.5 million.
However, a man in a visor had different plans. A man in a visor who had a chip on his shoulder after narrowly missing a chance at Open glory that year at Turnberry. A man in a visor who despite already being 36, would continue to compete at the very highest level for another 14 years.
Donning the garibaldi red of his cherished football team, Nottingham Forest, Lee Westwood was already a Herculean figure in world golf, but it was this era in which I remember him most. It was just a year later that he became World Number 1, after a 281-week domination from a certain Eldrick Tont.
On Jumeirah’s Earth Course, which still plays host to the event, the man from Worksop started with 66-69-66 to establish a two-shot lead over compatriot Ross McGowan. It was a clinic of quality ball-striking that Westwood had become so renowned for.
Yet, it was his mentality that set him apart that week. He was encouraged by his newly-appointed caddie, Billy Foster, to go out there and ‘bully’ his competitors – most notably – the new kid on the block, Rory McIlroy.
Heading into the final round, Westwood had a nice cushion and had left the new superstar in his wake. But the man in a visor had the bit between his teeth and a point to prove. After rewatching the highlights of his final round 64, there is no denying its status as absolutely vintage Westwood domination.
Rory had been affected by Westwood’s resolve to win that week. After playing together in Round 1, the Northern-Irishman’s bounce and shuffle had been knocked back a peg. Outmanoeuvred and outplayed, McIlroy couldn’t wait to ‘get away’ from the elder statesman.
Showing killer instinct absent at Turnberry, Westwood birdied five of his first seven, whilst McIlroy didn’t manage a birdie until the ninth and was planting his driver through an advertising board. Ross McGowan huffed and puffed to keep pace with Westwood, but even a 68 left him six adrift by the close.
With a celebration on the final green akin to Freddie Flintoff’s at Edgbaston in 2005, Westwood had firmly slammed the door on Rory’s hopes at becoming the youngest Order of Merit winner since Seve Ballesteros in 1976.
A grandstand finish for a grandstand player. Indeed, a grandstand finish for what would establish itself over the next decade as one of golf’s grandstand events. Golf on the European Tour would begin to thrive on a new scale. Churning out heaps of world-class talent and a Ryder Cup team that would win four from five until the humbling at Whistling Straits.
Perhaps I have on my rose-tinted glasses, yet this era of European success spurred on my own passion for the game as a junior revelling in the allure of our great sport.
To return to the present and to tomorrow’s opening round, the average punter is presented with a tournament finished before it has even started. A tournament that I would otherwise be extremely interested in watching. Done and dusted and in the can. It all feels very unsatisfactory, especially given how little McIlroy has played on the European circuit this season.
Shall we just give Manchester City the Premier League title after 12 games?
Juxtaposed against the six-round marathon of golf taking place at Final Qualifying in Spain, where the top 25 will receive tour cards, there’s a sad sense that European golf has gone very much askew. Whilst Rory has now totted up five European Tour Order of Merits and is publicly chasing Monty’s record of eight (seven of which were in a row), he has had to do remarkably little for his last two. Rory’s five Order of Merit titles have been won with cumulative starts totalling just 60 in those seasons. Monty, on the other hand, played three times as many events (183) in his title winning years.
With post-merger life just around the corner and elite golf at a crossroads, this has perhaps been a futile exercise. However, it might be useful for Mr Pelley to reminisce on the good old days for just a short while.
