As Rory McIlroy, Tom McKibbin and Shane Lowry prepare for the DP World Tour’s grand finale in Dubai, there’s a lot more than just a seventh Race to Dubai victory for McIlroy at stake.
Season finale
And then there was one. After visiting 27 countries across five continents, the DP World Tour’s wraparound schedule reaches a climax this week in Dubai. Since 2009, the DP World Tour Championship has annually played host to the season-ending event. Contested over 72 holes, with no cut, the concluding Rolex Series event features a $10 million prize fund – the biggest of the 42-tournament 2025 Race to Dubai season. Of the 37 different winners this season, 27 have made their way to the second of back-to-back Rolex Series events which serve as the DP World Tour Play-Offs. There are two pieces of silverware on offer this week, with both the DP World Tour Championship and Harry Vardon Trophy at stake. An exciting week awaits.
McIlroy on course for Race to Dubai glory
Race to Dubai Rankings leader McIlroy arrives at Jumeirah Golf Estates looking for a seventh Harry Vardon Trophy and fourth in a row. The Northern Irishman has won twice this season, memorably at the Masters Tournament to complete the career grand slam before coming through another play-off to win the Amgen Irish Open. Last year, he won the DP World Tour Championship to finish his season in style and he is again a man in control of his own destiny. After finishing in a tie for third last week in Abu Dhabi, he increased his lead over closest challenger Marco Penge – the only three-time winner on Tour this season – to 767.02 points. However, with 2,000 points on offer for the winner, and as few as 57.600 points for the player who finishes bottom, both Penge and third-placed fellow Englishman Tyrrell Hatton could still claim the Harry Vardon Trophy.
Inside the field
The final event of the 2025 Race to Dubai features the leading 50 available players on the Rankings, alongside Ludvig Åberg – who is making his DP World Tour Championship debut – and Shane Lowry who are also eligible for the season finale as European Ryder Cup players. The Swede is one of eight members of Luke Donald’s side that are in action this week, as are McIlroy, Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Rasmus Højgaard, with Justin Rose joining in the action after opting to miss last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. McIlroy, Fitzpatrick and Nicolai Højgaard are the only past winners in the field. It’s been an excellent campaign for the HotelPlanner Tour graduates, with nine players from the class of 2024 making their way to the Earth course. Jacob Skov Olesen, who made his Rolex Series debut last week in Abu Dhabi, is the only graduate of DP World Tour Qualifying School in the field.
A host of first-timers
One aspect in particular that is worth highlighting is the number of players teeing it up at the season-ending event for the first time. Of the 51 strong field, 17 are making their first competitive appearance at Jumeirah Golf Estates, including Åberg.
Of those, six are HotelPlanner Tour graduates: Reitan, John Parry, Martin Couvra, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Joakim Lagergren, Angel Ayora, Nicolai von Dellingshausen and Oliver Lindell. Reitan, Parry, Couvra and Von Dellingshausen have all won titles this season, highlighting the depth of talent coming through from the HotelPlanner Tour.
It’s been a year of success for both the young and the experienced, with Adrien Saddier – someone whose first full season on the DP World Tour was in 2014 – enjoying his career-best year along with Penge, while South African Jayden Schaper and Jacques Kruyswijk have caught the eye before and New Zealander Kazuma Kobori is at the end of his first full season after topping the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit last year. Elvis Smylie, Eugenio Chacarra and Michael Kim have all taken up DP World Tour membership this season, following victories in Australia, India and France respectively. Alongside Ryder Cup star Åberg, fellow Scandinavian Skov Olesen rounds out the group, having registered six top tens in his rookie campaign as a professional.
Dual membership cards with PGA TOUR
As part of the Strategic Alliance between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR, the top ten players on the final Race to Dubai Rankings, not otherwise exempt, will earn PGA TOUR membership for 2026. The player who finishes first on that list will qualify for THE PLAYERS Championship and two early Signature Events in the 2025 season, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational, with that reward set to be claimed by Penge.
Among the others set to benefit from the pathway include Kristoffer Reitan and John Parry – both graduates of the HotelPlanner Tour last year – along with Adrien Saddier, who is set to become the fourth Frenchman in the last three years to play their way onto the PGA TOUR via the Race to Dubai after Victor Perez, Matthieu Pavon and Antoine Rozner. Alex Noren, Laurie Canter and Haotong Li are also set to secure dual membership via the Rankings, with Daniel Brown, Keita Nakajima and Jordan Smith currently in posession of the final three cards, but looking over their shoulder. Noren could retain his PGA TOUR card via the FedExCup standings, which would supersede his position in the Race to Dubai Rankings. If he moves inside the top 100 stateside before the end of the year, that would make the No 11 finisher in the Race to Dubai Rankings eligible for a TOUR card – currently Martin Couvra.
To view the Race to Dubai Rankings, click here.
