Former US Open champion Graeme McDowell will play in the company of fellow major champion, Martin Kaymer for the first two rounds of this week’s season ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The Northern Irishman, who is the lone Irish player in the field this week with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry sitting out the curtain closer, arrived to the Earth Course at Jumeriah Golf Estates hoping a return to the European Tour can rekindle the spark that saw him claim the Saudi International title back in February.
Since then, a best of tied-24th result at October’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth is as good as McDowell has mustered across both Tours but he’ll hope to bounce off his German playing partner and former Ryder Cup teammate from Thursday (06.50 Irish time) to ensure he can put his best foot forward at a wide open Race to Dubai finale.
It’s literally all to play for with 12,000 Race to Dubai points and a prize fund of US $8million meaning – mathematically – any of the top-60 on the money-list can become European Number One.
Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed is the man to catch with Captain America in the company of his nearest challenger Tommy Fleetwood on Thursday afternoon. Ryder Cup star Reed is looking to become the first American winner of the Race to Dubai but has a stellar chasing pack ready to hunt him down at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Englishman Lee Westwood and American Collin Morikawa, who claimed his maiden Major Championship title at the 2020 US PGA Championship, are the other men who could secure the Harry Vardon Trophy with victory this week.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout leapt up to fifth in the Race to Dubai Rankings Presented by Rolex with back to back European Tour titles in his native South Africa in the last two weeks. He starts his first round with Frenchman Victor Perez.
Norwegian Viktor Hovland heads to Dubai fresh from his victory at the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN on the PGA Tour and plays alongside Matthew Fitzpatrick while world number 10 Tyrrell Hatton begins his challenge alongside fellow Englishman and this year’s Irish Open winner, Aaron Rai.
- Full tee-times HERE
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