Heaven on Earth
Wednesday 18 November 2009 09:32, UK
Golf Night presenters Rob Lee and Di Stewart analyse the four men who can win the Race to Dubai.
Four men can win - but who will be victorious?
After a thrilling 51 weeks of competition on the European Tour, it has all come down to this... the Dubai World Championship. The inaugural big-money climax in the Race to Dubai will welcome Europe's 60 leading players this weekend - minus two absentees - but only four men have the chance of walking away with the ultimate prize. Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher all have a chance of standing at the summit of European golf on Sunday night - and it is quite conceivable that one of them could walk away from the Earth Course with more than £1million of prize money in their back pocket. Irishman McIlroy leads the race and could enter the record books as the second youngest European Number One behind the great Seve Ballesteros. But the experienced Westwood is just over 100,000 euros behind and knows that victory on Sunday would see him repeat his Order of Merit triumph of 2000. German star Kaymer also knows that a victory in Dubai would see him take the top spot - which would be a remarkable feat considering he missed several months of the season after a go-karting accident. And with Paul Casey injured, Fisher is the fourth and final man who can top the European money list - but even a win might not be enough for the Englishman if the others perform well. Golf Night presenters Rob Lee and Di Stewart have been following the Race to Dubai every step of the way on Sky Sports, so who better to run the rule over the contenders? Skysports.com caught up with them to give us their insight on the glory-seekers - and also to tell us who they think will emerge as top dog.Rory McIlroy
ROB: Rory has been absolutely excellent this year and I think he has true superstar quality at the age of 20. He was a little slow to start with, but since winning the Dubai Desert Classic he has been awesome. His tee-to-green game is phenomenal; he's not a big guy but he has bags of power. His pitching and his bunker play are really good and weakest part of his game is his putting. I'm not saying he's a bad putter, but of all the elements of his game that's the bit he needs to work on the most. He is phenomenal though. The youngest person to win the Order of Merit was Seve Ballesteros and if Rory does it he'd be second by a few months - if you finish second to Seve at anything you are bordering on genius! In that context, to win the Race to Dubai in your early twenties would be unbelievable - and I think it's very do-able for him. He has shown in the last few weeks when he has been trading the lead with Lee Westwood that he can cope with the pressure - plus he has the lead now. He doesn't need to perform well if the others don't and there is more than one way for him to win.
DI: He is a phenomenon and I love watching him play. He's got one of the best swings in the game and his iron play has been superb over the last few months. He leapfrogged Westwood to the top of the Race to Dubai with a fantastic performance in Hong Kong and is now looking set to be first across the finishing line. I spoke to his dad, Gerry, at the Dunhill Links Championship and he told me how he'd noticed a significant shift in Rory's mental approach. For somebody who's only 20 years old to be so mature with his golf is something you only see occasionally in a lifetime. He is taking up his USPGA Tour card and as a worldwide player he will promote the sport as Tiger Woods as done - but the European Tour is important to him and I don't see why that move should be a negative. He's young and I'm sure he'll be able to handle flying all over the place. In the short term though, he is aiming to become the second youngest man to finish in the top spot behind Seve - but nothing would surprise me or any of the golf team when it comes to Rory because he's so talented.
Lee Westwood
ROB: His consistency has been remarkable this year. The only thing that will disappoint Lee is the lack of wins because when you look at the amount of brilliant play he has produced then he would have expected to win more. However, he's up there in second place because of his consistency - apart from last week on the grainy greens of Hong Kong, which are different to what he's used to. That won't be a problem in Dubai. Lee is also among the world's best ball-strikers, his driving and iron shots are fantastic and his only Achilles heel is his pitching and his bunker play. He has identified that and he's striving to improve - and we saw him hit a remarkable pitch over the trees on the 17th in Portugal, which was one of the shots of the year. He has come on leaps and bounds and he is in touch with the leader going into the final event. His experience will count for something this weekend and going on current form, we could even have a scenario on Sunday where he and McIlroy are the final two. They will both be concentrating on their own games, but don't worry, they will be keeping a close eye on each other!
DI: That win in Portugal a few weeks ago gave him a huge lift with his game and you could see from his interview afterwards that he'd drawn confidence from that. It was his first win since the British Masters in 2007 and everybody has been surprised that he hasn't won more regularly because his name is always near the top of the leaderboard. Can he finish it off this week? I wouldn't put anything past him because he's such a dominant force in the world of golf but I do suspect Rory might just pip him at the post. However, if it comes down to the pair of them coming down the stretch then I just don't know who'd handle themselves better. I'll be sitting on the fence on that one! I just know that anything can happen because it's such a unique experience for everybody involved. Will the money involved change the dynamics of how people play? Who knows. It's going to be fascinating to find out.
Martin Kaymer
ROB: The young German was flying until he hurt himself go-karting in the summer. Can you say to a young guy that he can't have a laugh at some point? I don't know. Kaymer has said himself that the accident won't stop him - but the fact is he could have had the Race to Dubai done and dusted if that hadn't happened. However, it would be remarkable if he could take a few months off in a crucial part of the season and still come out as top dog - and he could still do it. The fact he is in this position tells you how good he is - and he nearly won on his first week back when he was limping around on his sore foot (shades of Tiger Woods at last year's US Open...). Kaymer has a realistic chance to get it done this week and if that happens it will never be forgotten because while the others were scoring points consistently, he was sitting with his feet up playing golf on the PlayStation! I don't know if the Dubai Earth Course is on Tiger Woods 09 yet, but he will be a force to be reckoned with. He has an all-round game which is built for consistency. The likes of Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino faded it all their lives and that's the way Kaymer plays. It's a consistent way of playing golf and he's always going to be there or thereabouts if he putts well.
DI: I was in Valencia the week he came back from that foot injury and he came second, which was very impressive. The doctors actually told him to take another week off to rest, but he's such a young and fiery guy he was determined to get back out onto the golf course. He surprised everybody with his low scores in Valencia and we could see anything from him this week. We were wondering if he would need a few tournaments to get back into his game, but he proved everybody wrong. He took last week off and didn't play in Hong Kong, which was probably a good idea, and he has been able to get used to the greens and conditions in Dubai. The greens were very different in Hong Kong, so maybe the fact he's spent more time out there will give him an advantage over the rest. He's a big name on the European Tour these days, he enjoys playing in the Middle East and he really could win it. When you look at the qualities of these guys it makes it so hard to call! It would be incredible if Kaymer won it after that injury - and it just shows how strong he is both in mind and personality.
Ross Fisher
ROB: We saw how well he played at the Volvo World Match Play to get himself in a position to be able to win the Race to Dubai, so he must have an inner belief that he can do it. There are only four guys that can do it and he obviously has less of a chance than the others as he is more than €400,000 behind McIlroy - but I absolutely believe he can win the tournament this week. I haven't seen the Earth Course yet, but Fisher hits it an awfully long way so if length is going to be a factor then it would help him. He is a very good driver of a golf ball, much like Westwood, and he can drive it long and straight so if Fisher has a good week with the putter he could put the pressure on everybody else. It's not in his hands so I think there's less pressure on him. He's in a position where he can just go for it - whatever happens he needs to win because the others are going to make money. He's got nothing to lose, he can let it all go and spend the week going for flags.
DI: Ross beat a superb field at the Volvo Match Play and the win over Anthony Kim in the final was very impressive. He took home a very tasty pay cheque that week too, which I'm sure helped. Ross has shot up the rankings since that day and he's been working with Mark Roe, who told me he is really focused at the moment. His short game has come on leaps and bounds since he has been working with Mark and I know he likes playing in Dubai. He might be seen as an outsider by some, but I don't think I would say that because there's so little separating the top four. His objective is simply to win, he doesn't need to concern himself with all the mathematics of the other possibilities like the others may have to so maybe it will be more straightforward for him? He can go out, play aggressive golf and see what happens.
