How the Race to Dubai Works

The Race to Dubai ranks players on their performances over the course of 12 months, and it all builds up to the DP World Tour Championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai in November, where the overall winner is decided.

In its current form, the Race to Dubai comprises a large number of tournaments, 45 in 2016, which are held in countries across the world due to the increasing popularity of the European Tour. The race typically begins late in the previous calendar year, for example the 2016 schedule started with the Alfred Dunhill Championship in November 2015.

Tournaments are weighted differently, according to their level of prestige and rankings importance, and the bigger events like Majors attract the strongest fields so the rewards are greater. The higher a player finishes on a tournament leaderboard, the more they earn, and the amount of prize money won is then converted to ranking points towards the Race to Dubai.

The Race to Dubai features many of the world’s top golfers and is not just restricted to players from Europe. While the US PGA Tour is the destination of choice for most Americans, a lot of the best golfers from the rest of the planet will gravitate towards the events run by the European Tour and the chance to finish first in the Race to Dubai.

The Race to Dubai concludes with a final series of three big tournaments at the end of the season. The Turkish Airlines Open and Nedbank Golf Challenge offer players the chance to secure places in the top 60 of the rankings, who go on to qualify for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Rory McIlroy is the most successful player in Race to Dubai history since the rebranded competition replaced the Order of Merit, as the only man to have won on three occasions. A separate award, known as the Golfer of the Year, is also named at the end of the season by a panel of judges and does not have to be the player that topped the money list.