The Race to Dubai is still alive heading into the penultimate event of the season with four players still in the running to finish European Number One as the Final Series enters its third week.
While Rory McIlroy is still very much the favourite to win The Race to Dubai for a second time in three years with a lead of 2,943,536 points and just two tournaments on The 2014 European Tour International Schedule remaining, Jamie Donaldson, Sergio Garcia and Marcel Siem can all still catch the World Number One.
Each of the four tournaments in the Final Series carry 10 million points with 1,666,600 points to the winner, and therefore with 3,333,200 points available any of the current top four on The Race to Dubai can still take the top honours.
Donaldson, Garcia and Siem must win both this week’s Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the season finale at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates next week to have a chance but it is possible, as Billy Horschel demonstrated a few weeks ago by winning the last two events of the PGA Tour season to win the FedEx Cup.
Indeed 33 players in the history of The European Tour have won back-to-back titles including two players to have won the last two events of the season - Peter Oosterhuis in 1974 to win the then Order of Merit and Baldovino Dassu in 1976 who also won the last two official events. The last player to win back-to-back on The European Tour was McIlroy himself in winning the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA Championship having already won the BMW PGA Championship and The Open Championship during a glorious summer.
McIlroy will finish the season with at least 5,427,869 points, his current total plus last place points in Dubai, but if Donaldson won both of these next two tournaments he would move to 5,790,483 points on The Race to Dubai and McIlroy would therefore need to finish fifth or better in Dubai to stay ahead of the Welshman.
If Garcia won both he would finish on 5,696,662 points and McIlroy would require a top seven finish in Dubai while if Siem, who has already won the BMW Masters in the Final Series, won the two remaining events, McIlroy would need to finish 17th or better over the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Further down The Race to Dubai, The Turkish Airlines Open presented by the Ministry of Youth and Sports at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal is the final chance to qualify for the DP World Tour Championship with the top 60 available players on Sunday night securing a place in the elite field.
It is also another chance to make an impression on the top 15 on The Race to Dubai, who, at the end of the season, will share the $5 million bonus pool. Ireland’s Shane Lowry occupies 15th place heading into the last two weeks of the Final Series.
