The Fitzpatricks’ loss in skipping the first DP World Tour play-off event in Abu Dhabi this week, is another Sheffield golfer’s gain.

While it might not be as simplistic to say the Fitzpatricks are ‘losing out’ – Matt and Alex have certainly achieved and earned enough this year to have the right to put safety concerns first – their absence from the Middle East this week has nevertheless presented their fellow South Yorkshireman Sam Bairstow with a huge opportunity he would otherwise not have had.

For the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship is the first of two play-off events and only open to the top 70 players on the DP World Tour.

The Fitzpatricks - having won on both the DP and the PGA tours this season – were high up the rankings but are two of 11 players to have decided to skip this week, and potentially next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, with uncertainty in the region and security concerns among the reasons for doing so. Matt has also just recently become a father.

Everything to gain: Sam Bairstow is the last man in the field at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.

placeholder image — Everything to gain: Sam Bairstow is the last man in the field at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.

Open champion Ryan Fox, Ryder Cup players Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntrye, Justin Rose and Ludvig Aberg are also swerving this week, while Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Min Woo Lee, Si Woo Kim and Ryan Gerard – who are all hovering around the top-50 mark – are also missing.

It means the top 70 qualifiers reaches all the way down to 81st in the standings, where Sheffield’s Bairstow sits.

It is, therefore, an unexpected bonus for the 28-year-old lefty, one in which he has nothing to lose and everything to gain in one of the more lucrative tournaments of the season.

In his third season on the DP World Tour he is still searching for his first win at the level, but did at least make it all the way to Dubai for the tour finale in his rookie campaign two years ago. This year he has recorded just two top-10 finishes.

Star power: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland speaks to the media during a press conference prior to the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship at Yas Links Golf Course on November 04 (Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images)

He is joined in Abu Dhabi by Wakefield’s Dan Bradbury and Sheffield’s Joe Dean, both of whom had wins in 2026. Their place in the field for Dubai next week is already assured, with the pair of them facing a big fortnight in their quest to earn one of the 10 cards on the PGA Tour next season for those players not already exempt. That list stretches down to 14th, with British Masters champion Dean the man in possession of the final golden ticket.

Bradbury is 19th. Howley Hall’s Marcus Armitage is 29th.

There is a sprinkling of star power teeing off in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, with Masters champion Rory McIlroy joined by Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrell Hatton and PGA champion Aaron Rai.

Despite the reservations of some players over the closing stretch of the season being played in the United Arab Emirates amid unrest in the region, McIlroy has no concerns.

“Obviously the DP World Tour are talking to the local authorities all the time. If everyone deems that it’s safe to be here, then who am I to say otherwise?” he said.