While the rest of the field is nowhere to be seen, Rory McIlroy has already finished his Race to Dubai. The world no.1 is now assured of becoming the European no.1 even if he didn’t play in next week’s DP World Tour Championship.
Obviously, it’s not the best thing to happen to a season-ending championship. You do want that thrill and excitement to be alive until the last putt has been holed.
I am sure this will lead to the mandatory question being asked in the next few days – what can the European Tour do to make sure the season-ending championship has more relevance than just being a standalone tournament?
I wouldn’t tinker with the system anymore. In the five years since the Race to Dubai was instituted, the one fact that proves it works just fine is that the first four years, it was won by the player who was the world no.1 that year. Even when it was won by Henrik Stenson last year, he was the highest ranked European in the world.
So, the question that the European Tour need to answer is whether they want a system that truly recognises a fantastic year, or do they go the PGA Tour way and turn the Final Series into something like the FedEx Cup Playoffs? The Playoffs have been clearly designed to whip up the excitement for those four weeks, and it rewards the player who has had the most outstanding month.
If the European Tour want to make it more of a level-playing field, they could think of reducing the impact of the majors and WGC events on the Race to Dubai. These events have huge prize money on offer, almost triple in comparison to regular Tour events, and because only the top-100 ranked players in the world are assured of getting a start, they enjoy a huge advantage over other European Tour members.
However, I don’t really think that as a feasible idea because you want to incentivise your best players, and not punish them for being better than others.
This year, the Final Series events have modified point system with 10 million points up for grabs in each tournament. In the regular season, the points are exactly the same as the prize money.
If someone like Jamie Donaldson or Sergio Garcia won a couple of events on the Final Series and overtook McIlroy, it would have been an effort worth applauding. However, it really would have been a travesty of justice if they somehow managed to overtake the Northern Irishman just by winning some additional points.
I think it’s just as well that McIlroy has won the Race to Dubai. Now let’s just enjoy the lap of honour he takes at Jumeirah Golf Estates next week.
Coach Mickelson
Ryan Ruffels’ expression would have been priceless when he received a phone call out of the blue while practicing his putting before a tournament.
That call, which lasted an hour for the 16-year-old Australian amateur, was from five-time major champion Phil Mickelson.
But more interesting was what Mickelson was trying to sell during that call – he was trying to lure Ruffels to join Arizona State University.
Now it has been revealed that the world No11, a former NCAA champion, has taken up the role of interim assistant coach with ASU.
Mickelson’s younger brother, Tim, is the head coach. The assistant coach position became vacant earlier this year, and Tim managed to get his brother interested.
ASU are ranked 29th in the US, and Tim is hoping the presence of his brother would change things this year.
The position is honorary for Mickelson, who will obviously continue to compete on the Tour, but he will also spend some time recruiting talents for ASU, and then spending some time with the players.
Quote of the Week
“There is no doubt that Michael is a better golfer than I am… Of course, if I was playing twice a day for the last 15 years, then that might not be the case. He might want to spend more time thinking about the Bobcats – or the Hornets.” – President Barack Obama reacts to Michael Jordan’s comment that he is a ‘sh***y golfer’.
Stat of the Week
$720,000 – the winning cheque for Canadian Nick Taylor when he won the Sanderson Farms Championship last week. That was 30 times the previous best cheque he banked as a professional golfer in the past four years and the win comes in only his fourth start on the PGA Tour.
