Dubai: Pete Cowen, the coach of both this week’s main Race to Dubai contenders, Henrik Stenson and Danny Willett, is backing Stenson to win the money-list over the Swede’s three challengers; Willett, Alex Noren and Rory McIlroy.
“It would be a toss-up between the way Henrik played when he won here [in 2013 and 2014] and the way McIlroy played when he won here [in 2012 and 2015],” said Cowen ahead of this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates, which starts on Thursday.
“Both are massively talented, Rory has got age on his side, and I always said he was the best player I’d ever seen when he was 13-14-years-old and I was Ireland coach, and he’s fulfilled that promise.” But, in terms of who would win this year’s event and thus the money-list, he replied: “Stenson”.
“It’s been a long season and of course Danny hasn’t played that well virtually since he finished second in Italy [in September] and he’ll be wanting to put that right.
“Stenson is pretty fresh, he played last week but is not overstretched this year, he wants to win and, when Henrik wants to win, there are usually sparks flying.
“Rory is without doubt one of the best golfers in the world and likes this course, he won last year so he’ll want to defend again. Outside of that I’m not bothered about the rest, I’m just hoping one of our two wins.”
Of Willett, and the 2016 Masters champion’s late slump almost putting paid to his Race to Dubai chances, Cowen added: “He’s pulled out of next week’s World Cup because he was almost going to be playing seven weeks in a row, which is too much.
“But, those are the demands of a Masters champion. They don’t like to let sponsors down so unfortunately they play too much and get into poor form and it spirals down. The same as it spirals up in confidence with Alex,” he said in reference to Noren’s three wins in as many months, which have catapulted the Swede into late contention.
“Next year we’ll do the schedule slightly differently but there’s not a lot we can do about it now. He [Willett] will rest the next couple of days and not spend too much time worrying about hitting the ball, but just go out and play golf and try to deflect the tiredness away. Luckily he’s got his family — his wife and young son here — this week, so that will give him a bit of a boost.”
Both Open winner Stenson and Masters champion Willett won their first Majors this season. But asked who had coped better with the newfound fame, Cowen replied: “You would say on form Henrik has taken to it better, but Danny is still up there and in with a chance. He’s second in the Race to Dubai to Henrik, which means he’s still played pretty well after it.
“Any Major win affects the player, but Danny had a lot more than a Major win to contend with, at the same time he moved house and his first child arrived the week before his first Majors win, that’s pretty stressful all those things, and that’s obviously taken its toll a little bit.”
