DP World Tour Championship Preview

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

SO THIS is it...the Dubai World Championship brings the curtain down on the Race to Dubai after a truly memorable season. The top 60 players arrive in the desert ready to carve up a huge prize pot. And how appropriate it will be if Henrik Stenson, the Open champion, is crowned Europe's number one for the second time.

The Swede has had a year he will never forget, crowned by a truly astonishing four days at Troon when he produced some incredible golf to beat a shellshocked Phil Mickelson to pick up the Claret Jug. Stenson has had plenty of highs and lows during his remarkable career but the past four years have seen him perform consistently and brilliantly. All that was missing from his CV was a major, and now that he has put that right you have to believe that he has every chance of adding a couple more.

Danny Willett led the Race to Dubai for much of the year after his victory at The Masters in April but he has struggled badly in recent months and the likes of Stenson and McIlroy have inexorably closed the gap on the Englishman, with the Swede finally overtaking him after the WGC Champions in Shanghai. Stenson will arrive in Dubai, where he has won before, with his confidence sky-high and is a red-hot favourite to do enough to win the Race to Dubai. Nobody could possibly begrudge him.

Let's not forget to take time out to pat Willett on the back for his success at Augusta. In many ways it came out of the blue, and he certainly had some help from Jordan Spieth's disaster at the par-three 12th, but Willett had been steadily climbing the rankings before The Masters. He may well need this season to finish so that he can dust himself down and start all over again. He has clearly felt that the world expects him to perform like a major champion every time he steps onto a golf course, but this sport is simply not like that. A 61 one day can be followed by an 81 just 24 hours later.  

The field in Dubai will also be looking for a sizeable chunk of the $5m bonus pool - with Christmas just around the corner, it will come in very handy, especially if one of the lesser lights can win the tournament.

Tyrrell Hatton can no longer be regarded as a lesser light after finally winning for the first time at the Dunhill Links Championship. He did it in the manner of a true champion, and that is what he now is. He had come close so many times in the past, but must have started to wonder if he would ever finish the job. Having done so, he is now a believer in his own ability - and about time too. The Englishman was building a reputation as somebody who was too hard on himself when things didn't quite go right for him. Hopefully, he can now get beyond this. Nobody who watched him play ever doubted that he had the ability and, hopefully, Hatton now feels the same way.

He is a young man with no weaknesses, other than the "15th club" (his mind) but he has now learnt how to master that as well there will be no stopping him.

Alex Noren has now won four times in what has been the best season of his career. He has reached a record high in the world rankings and is rapidly closing in on the top 10. The only surprise is that he hasn't been here before. Yes, he has had more than his fair share of injury troubles. Now he is fully fit again and has shown us all just how good he can be when there are no aches and pains. He admits that he has been inspired by fellow Swede Stenson and make no mistake - he is also good enough to be challenging for majors. And now he can look forward to playing in all four majors and the WGC events in 2017. The only way is up for Noren. 

His victory in the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City last week catapulted him to third in the Race to Dubai and means that if he wins in Dubai he can still overtake Stenson.

Rory McIlroy chose not to play in either the Turkish Airlines Open or Nedbank Challenge, which all but ended his chances of winning the Race to Dubai for a third successive time. It meant that his fate was no longer in his own hands. The Northern Irishman withdrew from the even in Turkey because of security concerns at a tournament that passed without incident. He is, of course, the FedEx Cup champion and will put the icing on the cake if he is able to achieve the double again.  But the odds ar estacked against him.

He played well enough at the WGC Champions to confirm that he remains in excellent form and he has had a further two weeks to work on his game, which can hardly be good news for his rivals. If he can maintain the putting touch he displayed towards the end of the PGA Tour season then everybody else is playing for second place. By his own very high standards, McIlroy has had a poor season and he will look at the past couple of months with some satisfaction, happy that he has finally found a way of getting the ball into the hole on the greens.

So who is going to win? McIlroy, of course. And I have a sneaky feeling that he will be chased all the way to the end by Francesco Molinari - the Italian is another who has spent recent seasons trying to juggle life on both tours.

To Win: Rory McIlroy. Who else?

Each Way: Francesco Molinari. In a rich vein of form

Fantasy Picks:

Rory McIlroy. Simply the best

Francesco Molinari. One of the best iron players on the planet

Henrik Stenson. Would love to finish the year with another win

Alex Noren.Don't rule out win number five

Tyrrell Hatton. Full of self-belief now

Rafa Cabrera-Bello. Victory would be the icing on the cake

Louis Oosthuizen. Best swing in Dubai this week

Bernd Wiesberger. Austrian is looking good

Thomas Pieters. Would cap a great year with victory here