History for Rory, PGA Tour cards, a $10 million purse: What’s at stake in the DP World Tour finale
The Old World circuit wraps up its 2024-25 season this week in Dubai with the DP World Tour Championship. Unlike its American counterpart, the Tour Championship, which has undergone too many changes to list, the Euro finale has mostly stayed the same since it was founded in 2009, when the Order of Merit was replaced by the Race to Dubai. Here is what you need to know about the DP World Tour Championship.
Part of the tour’s Rolex Series, the DP World Tour Championship is a no-cut 72-hole affair, boasting a $10 million purse with $3 million going to the winner. Simultaneous to the DP World Tour Championship, a winner of the season-long points race will be determined—the Race to Dubai champion—and awarded the Harry Vardon Trophy. The tournament will be played at Jumeirah Golf Estates, a Greg Norman-designed course that has hosted the tournament since its inception.
The top 50 players in the Race to Dubai standings are eligible, along with Ludvig Aberg (who is making his tournament debut) and Shane Lowry, as the two were given exemptions as European Ryder Cup players. There are a handful of notable absences, however, highlighted by Jon Rahm (who’s taking a sabbatical following a winless year), Viktor Hovland (still dealing with the neck injury that forced him out at the final day of the Ryder Cup) and Sepp Straka (family matter).
Hovland is the only player in the top 50 who is not scheduled to tee it up.
Rory McIlroy enters atop the Race to Dubai standings. Thanks to his Masters and Irish Open wins, the Ulsterman has a commanding lead in the season-long points race, which he strengthened last week thanks to a T-3 at the Abu Dhabi Championship featuring his lowest career round on the DP World Tour. “I really like that golf course,” McIlroy said about Jumeirah Golf Estates on Sunday after a final-round 62 in Abu Dhabi. “It really suits me. Probably suits me a little bit better than this course does this week just in terms of what you need to do off the tee and into the greens. Yeah, look, this was a great confidence-builder this week coming off a couple weeks off and hopefully just produce more of the same next Thursday and onwards.”
Only two other players have a statistical chance of overtaking McIlroy for the season-long points race (see below). McIlroy has won the last three Race to Dubai titles and six overall; a seventh career win would put him just one behind Colin Montgomerie’s eight Order of Merit crowns for most in tour history. McIlroy has likewise won the DP World Tour Championship three times, including last year.
The two who have a shot at catching McIlroy are Marco Penge and Tyrrell Hatton (above). Penge has been the breakout name on the DP World Tour in 2025, winning three times this campaign (including last month at the Spanish Open). Despite playing most of the time at LIV Golf, Hatton won in Dubai to start the season, which has put him in the running for the season title. McIlroy can make this a non-issue by finishing first or second; Penge would need to finish in a three-way tie for second or better, while Hatton would need to win along with several other scenarios to come to fruition to have a chance.
The top 10 players in the Race to Dubai rankings will share a $6 million bonus, with the winner allotted $1.5 million.
The top 10 players on the final rankings, not otherwise exempt, will earn PGA Tour membership for 2026. The current list is topped by Penge (above, who has locked up his card), with Kristoffer Reitan, Adrien Saddier, John Parry, Alex Noren, Laurie Canter, Haotong Li, Daniel Brown, Keita Nakajima and Jordan Smith behind. However, every player in this week’s field remains in contention to grab on of the 10 cards.
