Danny Willett reticent about adding Dubai race to Masters title

Danny Willett believes it is unfair that his withdrawal from next week's World Cup in Australia has also cost Lee Westwood his debut in the event. (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire).

Willett won the Dubai Desert Classic in January and had led the money list since winning his first major title at Augusta before being overtaken by Henrik Stenson at the end of October. The 29-year-old Yorkshireman has struggled to hit top form since returning from a winless Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine, but kept Open champion Stenson in his sights with closing rounds of 67 and 69 in last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge.

That restricted his deficit to 299,675 points and with more than 1.2million on offer to the winner of the DP World Tour Championship, Willett knows a victory in Dubai would see him finish the season as European  No 1 for the first time.

McIlroy is seeking a hat-trick of Race to Dubai titles but needs to defend his title at Jumeirah Golf Estates and for Willett to finish outside the top five, Alex Noren outside the top two and Stenson worse than 45th in the 60-man field.

“It’s been a very turbulent year,” said Willett. “We’ve had the ultimate of highs and a few real lows the last few months and now here we are. We’ve got four rounds of golf left in what’s been a pretty long season and a slightly different situation to last year, but we still need to win the tournament to win the Race to Dubai.

“If we control what we can and win a golf tournament, then nobody can take it away from us. It could be an exciting week.

“I have a little bit more confidence after the last couple of rounds last week. I actually allowed myself to play golf. I didn’t try to swing it perfectly or do anything on the course that you do on the range. At times you’ve got to get out of your own way and just allow yourself to play golf again.”

The world No 11, who finished second to McIlroy on the Race to Dubai last year, added: “I’d love to finish first at least once in my life.

“If I were to finish second for the rest of my life, it’s not that you’re playing bad golf, you’ve had a massively consistent year. But unfortunately we are coming up against Rory, Stenson, Alex, who are playing great golf.”

McIlroy has won the season-ending event twice before, but knows even another victory will probably not be enough.

“Mathematically I can win, but it’s not going to happen,” he said.