Rory McIlroy’s seven-way fight to win the Race To Dubai shows that the European Tour has never been stronger
For an illustration of why the European Tour has never been stronger, look no further than Andy Sullivan, the Englishman who has won no fewer than three times this season.
Despite that hat-trick of successes, Sullivan goes into this week’s season finale, the DP World Tour Championship, knowing that even a fourth title of 2015 will not see finish first in the order of merit.
That’s a far cry from my days on the tour but the scenario could hardly be any more exciting. Seven players are still in with a chance of topping the Race To Dubai standings and all are good enough to win.
Rory McIlroy will be favourite to finish top of the money list for the third time in four years, thanks to his slender lead and, of course, the four-time Major winner’s pedigree.
Danny Willett cut the gap further at last week’s BMW Masters in Shanghai, and the Englishman and McIlroy are the only men who can guarantee Race To Dubai victory by winning on Sunday.
McIlroy has had a dodgy – and tough – year, with an ankle ligament injury suffered playing football with friends preventing him from defending his Open title.
Yet he is still ranked third in the world and could finish the season as Europe’s leading player. If he plays his game this week then there will be nothing much his rivals can do.
I can’t remember a time when there were still seven contenders for the order of merit heading into the last event. It’s extremely open and they are all – McIlroy, Willett, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and An Byeong-Hun – great players.
Willett has enjoyed phenomenal progress but if there is a form horse for McIlroy to be wary of then I think it’s Rose, who won the UBS Hong Kong Open last month and has eight top 10 finishes in 11 outings.
Enjoying his first win last week was Sweden’s Kristoffer Broberg, who registered a fantastic play-off victory over Patrick Reed at the BMW Masters in China.
On top of that he now has Ryder Cup points under his belt, and to beat someone as accomplished as the American will do Broberg so much good. Who knows where he can go from here?
Finally, it was great to see Graeme McDowell bounce back with a rain-delayed win on the PGA Tour yesterday. He says he’s working hard after a difficult year and that’s good news.