Danny Willett feels Rory McIlroy has the advantage on Race to Dubai

Danny Willett believes Rory McIlroy’s week off gives the world No 3 the advantage in the Race to Dubai ahead of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.

McIlroy was the only player in the top 15 of the standings not to feature at last week's BMW Masters, with the 26-year-old only able to take a week off after the European Tour allowed him to play 12 events over the season rather than the minimum of 13.

An ankle injury forced McIlroy to sit out of several tournaments this summer, including the defence of his Open title at St Andrews, which the Tour's chief executive Keith Pelley felt were "exceptional circumstances" to compete in fewer tournaments and stay on the money list.

The defending champion has now been able to arrive in Dubai early to prepare his bid for a third Harry Vardon Trophy in four years and although Willett believes the Tour made the "right decision", he feels McIlroy has the upper hand.

"At the beginning of the season, maybe not, but this is the 52nd week of the season, and I think having had a week off might have benefitted him," Willett told a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday.

"I appreciate that him playing makes a massive difference for the Tour and you have to kind of let him off with the events, but certainly he has more of an advantage over the guys who have played all three and this will be the fourth.

"There's a lot of travelling, a lot of golf, time changes, sleeping patterns and everything like that can really take its toll.

"If Rory wins more money than anyone else playing less events, then that's just good golf. There's still rules there to kind of abide by, otherwise they wouldn't make rules.

"If rules were allowed to be broken all the time, then there's no point in setting them in the first place, but in that case it's a very difficult one to get correct

"It was the first decision Keith had to make in becoming the chief executive of the Tour and I think he made the correct decision."

The pair are two of seven players who can end the week as Race to Dubai champion, with Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen and Byeong Hun An also in the hunt.

Willett, who trails by just 1,613 points, missed out moving in to No 1 spot when a final-round 70 in Shanghai left him tied-28th for the week, but he still remains confident of ending the season strongly.

"I know there's a lot of permutations and other players could win depending on certain results, but we're going to try and take everything in and enjoy what we've achieved this year.

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"It's been a great year and Rory and I have put a nice gap between ourselves and third. Hopefully we can get that little extra push and have a really good week.

"Regardless of what he's been doing in preparation, we've still got a goal in mind to go out there and beat him and that's what we've got to look at."

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