DUBAI // Justin Rose says Rory McIlroy's presence at the business end of the Race to Dubai was vital, even if it means his own chances of winning the title are diminished.
Rose will be in the penultimate group out in the opening round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship at the Earth Course, at 12.30pm on Thursday.
He lies third in the money list, behind McIlroy and Danny Willett, the final pairing who tee it up at 12.40pm, with around 651,000 points to make up.
The mathematics behind what the chasing pack need to do to topple McIlroy this week are headache-inducing, although Rose believes he has hit on a simple method.
“The way I see it, if I win this tournament I would be very unlucky not to win the Race to Dubai,” Rose said on the eve of the tournament.
“For the most part I’ve done my job in getting to this point of the season with a great chance to win it all.”
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Of course, it would have been far easier if McIlroy was no longer in the running at all, as strict observance of the rules could have dictated.
The world No 3 was granted a special waiver to continue competing in the race, despite not having played the requisite amount of Tour-sanctioned events, partly due to an ankle injury in the summer.
Many have suggested the rules should have been upheld, although his rivals have generally been sanguine about having him in the field this week.
Rose himself has only played two more tournaments than the 11 McIlroy has managed, and is within striking distance of him thanks to a win Hong Kong Masters at the end of last month.
“It’s important to have guys like Rory involved in the Tour,” the Englishman said.
“If you didn’t give him that special exemption, we’d have lost him in Turkey and we’d have lost him this week. As a tour, it’s good to have him around.
“Obviously the exemption came through an unfortunate injury and unforeseen circumstances. If he had maybe just not wanted to get out of bed and play a couple of tournaments, then that exemption doesn’t become possible.”
Rose has good reason to feel confident about his chances this weekend, given his history around Jumeirah Golf Estates.
After shooting a course-record 62 in the final round, he only lost out when McIlroy birdied the last five holes, and he was also runner-up to Henrik Stenson last year.
Ally that to the consistency he has shown at leading events this year: tied-second in The Masters, tied-sixth in the Open Championship, and fourth in the US PGA, and there is reason to see why he believes.
His playing partner this afternoon, Shane Lowry, was less bullish, despite professing to being “quietly confident” of leapfrogging the three players above him in the money list.
The Irishman said his indifferent form has been down to a tepid putter, but he does have an added incentive of national pride for performing well around the Earth Course.
A Lowry victory would bookend a fine week for Irish sport, with the national football team securing qualification for the European Championship in France next year by beating Bosnia. “On Monday night I watched the game and was happy for the lads,” Lowry said.
“I met up with [coaches] Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane a couple of months ago before they played Gibraltar and I had a great chat with them one evening for a couple of hours.
“When you know people and you see them doing well, it makes it a whole lot better and a whole lot sweeter.
“It’s great. Everyone knows how Irish I am and how much I love my country, so to keep the celebrations going on Sunday would be nice.”
The tee times and pairings for the first round at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Thursday. All times UAE.
07:40 – Alejandro Canizares, Stephen Gallacher
07:50 – Gregory Bourdy, Graeme Storm
08:00 – Scott Hend, Richie Ramsay
08:10 – Emiliano Grillo, Fabrizio Zanotti
08:20 – Rikard Karlberg, Marcus Fraser
08:30 – Pablo Larrazabal, Maximilian Kieffer
08:40 – Joost Luiten, Raphael Jacquelin
08:50 – Peter Uihlein, Lee Slattery
09:00 – Jamie Donaldson, Eddie Pepperell
09:10 – Julien Quesne, Francesco Molinari
09:25 – Anthony Wall, Rafa Cabrera-Bello
09:35 – Gary Stal, Alexander Levy
09:45 – Tyrrell Hatton, Ian Poulter
09:55 – Lee Westwood, Alex Noren
10:05 – Luke Donald, Lucas Bjerregaard
10:15 – Charl Schwartzel, Thorbjorn Olesen
10:25 – Miguel Angel Jimenez, Thomas Pieters
10:35 – Marc Warren, David Howell
10:45 – James Morrison, Tommy Fleetwood
10:55 – Martin Kaymer, Andy Sullivan
11:10 – Jaco van Zyl, Anirban Lahiri
11:20 – Chris Woods, Ross Fisher
11:30 – Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reed
11:40 – Matthew Fitzpatrick, Soren Kjeldsen
11:50 – Kristoffer Brodberg, Kiradech Aphibarnrat
12:00 – Victor Dubuisson, Bernd Wiesberger
12:10 – Thongchai Jaidee, An Byeong-hun
12:20 – Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen
12:30 – Shane Lowry, Justin Rose
12:40 – Danny Willett, Rory McIlroy
pradley@thenational.ae
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