The DP World Championship is one week on the European Tour that is a lot of fun if you happen to be among the top-60 in the Race to Dubai. And when you are not, like me this season, it can be a painful reminder of things that have gone wrong during the season.
This is our season-ending tournament and as it should, it showcases the guys who have played well throughout the season. And while normally there are two competitions to follow and be excited about when the Tour reaches the Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates — the tournaments itself and the culmination of the year-long Race to Dubai — Rory McIlroy has ensured the fight this time will only be for one trophy.
Fair play to the World No 1 and I think he thoroughly deserves to be crowned the No 1 player in Europe. There has been a lot of talk about the new points system introduced by the European Tour in an effort to make the Final Series events more exciting and make the race to No 1 tighter, but when you have a year like Rory has had, all you can do is tip your hat and salute his genius.
So, the focus is going to be solely on the tournament this week, which should be a good thing for any player who wins it apart from Rory. I do remember when I won in 2006, when the tournament was called Volvo Masters and held at Valderrama, Padraig Harrington won the European No 1 crown the same day. I did manage to hoist that impressive trophy, but the spotlight was firmly, and fairly, on Padraig.
I personally quite like the Earth course and I have done rather well whenever I have played the tournament. It’s an open golf course and there are no hidden dangers lurking. The key, apart from the established fact that you have to putt well to win on any golf course, is to try to hit it from the fairways as much as possible. And as the trees and shrubs mature with each passing year, the significance of finding the fairways off the tee is going to increase.
Because Rory has not played a tournament in nearly six weeks, I am not sure whether he will be able to sustain the same brilliance he showed before his brief, but forced hibernation. If he doesn’t, it then opens up the doors for many others.
I am big believer in momentum in golf, and because of what guys like Stenson, Ian Poulter, Brooks Koepka and Victor Dubuisson did before reaching Dubai, I would back their chances.
Stenson and Dubuisson are coming off brilliant final rounds in Turkey, and they did very well in Dubai last year. Koepka is an amazing talent and he showed that to the world with his first big win last week, while Poulter has been trending in the right direction these last couple of weeks. He is another player who has done well on the Earth course, and would dearly love to improve upon his two runner-up finishes.
Whatever happens on Sunday evening, be prepared for lots of birdies and fun this week.
— Jeev Milkha Singh is a four-time champion on the European Tour
