White Rose fails to muster presence at Race to Dubai finale

Sheffield’s Danny Willett placed 62nd on the Race to Dubai standings, two places shy of the top 60 cut-off.

The 26-year-old, who played in three of the first four Dubai World Championships, missed out by less than 10,000 euros (£8,500).

Even though four players from the top 60 are not in the field – high-profile players Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel are among those who have openly objected to the qualifying criteria – those from just outside the cut-off point have not been promoted.

Malton’s Simon Dyson, who is awaiting a disciplinary hearing into allegations that he tapped down a spikemark in round two of the BMW Shanghai Masters, finished 72nd.

Harrogate’s John Parry came home five places behind after neither he nor Willett did enough at last week’s Turkish Airlines Open.

Hull’s Richard Finch, who lost his card after a poor season, is trying to win it back at the final stage of qualifying school this week in Spain. He is in the hunt for one of the 25 cards available for next season with just two rounds of the six-round marathon remaining.

Henrik Stenson went into the Tour Championship in Atlanta in September as one of five players who could take the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup by winning the tournament and did just that to claim the $10m bonus.

This week in Dubai the Swede is one of three players in similar control of their own destiny, knowing that victory in the DP World Tour Championship will secure overall victory in the Race to Dubai, status as European No 1 and another $1m bonus.

“It’s a very similar situation to what we had going into Atlanta and I kind of liked that set-up,” said Stenson, who has a lead of just over 213,000 points over 
US Open champion Justin Rose.

Third-placed Graeme McDowell is the other player who would seal the Race to Dubai with a win over the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

“The outcome worked out well for me there so I hope it can be the same again,” continued Henson, “but it’s going to take a lot of good golf. It’s a quality field as always.

“I know that my neighbours (Stenson, Rose, McDowell and fourth-placed Ian Poulter all live in Lake Nona in Florida) are my friends, but they are not going to start making bogeys because they like me.”

Poulter’s added motivation is a $100 bet with Stenson, at 10-1, that he will not overtake him, with the loser having to act as the winner’s personal waiter on a night out as well.

“That’s probably the biggest motivator, not to become his servant for the day,” Stenson joked.

“But the No 1 focus is to win the Race to Dubai.

“I guess the second would be to win the tournament and the third one is to make sure Ian Poulter is behind me.

“Growing up on the European Tour and playing here for many, many years, it would mean a lot to be the overall winner of the Race to Dubai.

“It’s always one of the things I would have liked to achieve in golf.

“To have a chance to do it with winning the FedEx Cup is probably something I’m not going to have a chance to do again and it’s going to be hard for some of the other guys to have a chance to do it as well.

“It’s something that I really want, but if you want something too much that’s going to make some trouble for you.”