Diluted Dubai end to European Tour season but not for Scots

No Rory McIlroy. No Jon Rahm. No Shane Lowry. And some other big names, too. This week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai on the European Tour has definitely been diluted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a damp squib. Far from it, in fact.

Jon Rahm of Spain poses with the Race to Dubai trophy following his victory in the DP World Tour Championship Dubai at Jumerirah Golf Estates last NovemberPicture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

For starters, it promises to be an exciting week for Scottish golf as Bob MacIntyre, Marc Warren, Connor Syme, Grant Forrest and Scott Jamieson all fly the Saltire on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, where the action starts on Thursday.

The field for this event, of course, is determined by the Race to Dubai standings and, even under the normal criteria, it would have been job done for both 22nd-placed MacIntyre and Warren, who sits 52nd, as they finished inside the 60.

MacIntyre ended the regular phase of the season strongly, landing his maiden win on the circuit in the Cyprus Showdown as he successfully made it into the $8 million Rolex Series event two seasons in a row.

Just over 12 months ago in the same event, the left-hander rose to the challenge to win his thrilling battle with American Kurt Kitayama to become the first Scot since Warren in 2004 to be crowned as Rookie of the Year.

One of his goals this week will be to try and get as close as he can to finishing the season in the top 10 in the standings - he was 11th last year - and open up as many doors as possible for the 2021 campaign.

For Warren, this has already been a season of doors opening. He came out of the Covid-19 lockdown in the summer without a category on the main tour, but, carrying his own clubs, it was onwards and upwards again as he won the first event after the restart, the Austrian Open.

That alone wouldn’t have been good enough to carry him into this week’s showpiece, but it was effectively job done when he then backed it up with a top-five finish in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open in September.

“I didn’t have any status a few months ago, so to qualify for the DP World is great,” admitted Warren. “It’s a course where I’ve done decently in the past (shooting a 65 when finishing just outside the top 20 in 2014) and I love playing it. It’s a special week to finish the year.”

Warren was part of a record six-strong Scottish contingent for this event in 2012, joining Jamieson, Paul Lawrie, Stephen Gallacher, Richie Ramsay and David Drysdale in the line up on that occasion.

Four in 2017 had been the next best tartan tally, but three of the last four years had also been light on numbers. It was a Scot-free event in 2016, while Russell Knox was on his own in 2018, as was the case for MacIntyre last year.

To get five this time around is something to shout about, even if Syme, Forrest and Jamieson all required the cut-off to go lower than normal after they ended that regular part of the campaign sitting 67th, 68th and 69th respectively in the standings.

That’s down to McIlroy (17th), defending Race to Dubai champion Rahm (20th) and Lowry (35th) all deciding to skip this week for one reason or another, as well as Louis Oosthuizen (8th), Lucas Herbert (10th), Paul Casey (12th), Adam Scott (37th), Tony Finau (40th), Ryan Fox (47th), Abraham Ancer (50th) and Min Woo Lee (56th).

It’s a debut appearance for both Syme and Forrest, with the latter not only pleased for himself to achieve a “massive” goal but also for his girlfriend, Christy Farrell, who had already planned to head out to Dubai this week.

“It will be a nice way to cap off what has been a tough year for everybody, especially her as she is a nurse (at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary),” he said. “It’s been hectic all year for her and she’s not been able to come to any events, so we will both enjoy this week.”

Bidding to become the first American to win the Race to Dubai, Patrick Reed tops the standings from 2017 champion Tommy Fleetwood, with US PGA champion Collin Morikawa, Lee Westwood and in-form Christiaan Bezuidenhout also in the mix.

With the likes of two-time Race to Dubai winner Henrik Stenson and Norwegian Viktor Hovland, who recorded his second PGA Tour triumph of the season in Mexico on Sunday to leap into the world’s top 15, also in this week’s field, it’s certainly not shabby by any means.

Yes, of course, it’s a pity that McIlroy, Rahm, Lowry and those others have decided against making the trip to the UAE, but this is one of those years when free passes simply can’t be frowned upon.

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