This week’s Husqvarna British Masters signals the start of the DP World Tour’s Back 9 – the last of the six ‘swings’ that make up the Tour’s schedule.
It also marks the start of Ryder Cup qualification for Adare Manor in 2027, with each subsequent DP World Tour and PGA Tour event – excluding PGA Tour events held opposite a Rolex Series event – counting towards building the six automatic qualifiers for Luke Donald’s side.
Though the 1,500 points on offer (250 to the winner this week) at Back 9 events are significantly lower than the 3,000 at PGA Tour Signature Events, and dwarfed by the 5,000 on offer at major championships, it’s nevertheless a significant opportunity for fringe players and first-time hopefuls to lay down an early marker and put themselves firmly on Donald’s radar.
And that’s certainly the case for Tom McKibbin, who is the only Irishman in the field this week.
McKibbin is heavily rumoured to be returning full-time to the DP World Tour in 2027, even if LIV 2.0 gets off the ground, and with the 2026 LIV campaign wrapped up, is free to compete in any DP World Tour event he wishes between now and the first of the season-ending playoff events.
And putting himself in Ryder Cup conversation is not the only thing he has to play for.
Though he’s only teed it up in nine DP World Tour counting events since the season began in Australia last November, the Holywood man is ranked 124th in the Race to Dubai and would need to move back into the top 100 to guarantee that he’d be exempt into any DP World Tour event he wishes in 2027.
With the 23-year-old playing in the British Masters at The Belfry, the Amgen Irish Open at Doonbeg, and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth all in the next month, and a further five DP World Tour events on offer before the playoffs start, cracking the top 100 shouldn’t be too much trouble.
But making it into the top 70 for the first playoff event is a step higher still. And since he won’t be eligible to play in PGA Tour events until at least August of 2027, those two season-ending Rolex Series events and the 2,000 Ryder Cup points on offer, not to mention the World Ranking points, could be the difference between being on the inside looking out and being on the outside looking in when it comes to major championships and the Ryder Cup next year.
Of course McKibbin is far from the only man with Ryder Cup ambitions teeing it up this week. He and fellow Legion XIII teammate Tyrrell Hatton – also heavily rumoured to be returning to the DPWT full-time – made the trip from LIV’s season-finale in Indianapolis together, as did Adrian Meronk who was unfortunate not to make the team at Marco Simone in 2023.
Marco Penge, Angel Ayora and Jakob Skov Olesen will all fancy their chances of putting themselves into strong contention for debut appearances at Adare Manor, and every other European with a DP World Tour card knows they are only two or three good weeks from being part of the conversation.
Rory McIlroy may be fully focused on the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship at East Lake and winning a fourth FedEx Cup, but his main rival at the top of the Race to Dubai, Patrick Reed, has his focus firmly on the Belfry and Race to Dubai.
Reed continues to accumulate points with a T30 finish at last week’s Nexo Championship stretching his lead over the seven-time Harry Vardon Trophy winner, and this week and next week’s Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre offer further opportunities to widen the gap before the current one-two lock horns at Doonbeg.
That race will likely go all the way to Jumeirah Golf Estates and the DP World Tour Championship in November, but alongside it, a new and arguably more consequential race is now getting underway.
The race to Adare Manor starts here. And with so much still to play for, the landscape could look very different by the time the Ryder Cup arrives in 2027.
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