Graeme McDowell in Four-Way Dubai Dogfight

Editor’s note: Brian Keogh is a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a regular contributor to The Irish Times, Golf Digest Ireland and other golf publications. The following piece is excerpted from his blog, Irish Golf Desk. 

By Brian Keogh
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

GRAEME MCDOWELL RECKONS THE Race to Dubai has become a four-way dogfight following Francesco Molinari’s wire-to-wire win in Shanghai. The Ulsterman goes into this week’s megabucks Barclays Singapore Open €531,806 adrift of German ace Martin Kaymer in the battle to become Europe’s No. 1.

But with Molinari seeing off Lee Westwood in the WGC-HSBC Champions to go fourth behind in the world No. 1 in the money list, McDowell knows he’s got a battle on his hands. Disappointed to finish in the pack in the WGC event in China, he’s hoping for better against Kaymer and the in-form Italian in this week’s $6m (€4.3m) battle at Serapong Golf Club.

A poor 34th last week, McDowell groaned: “World Golf Championships are massive events and unfortunately I didn’t take advantage of that with a good week in Shanghai. I hoped to catch Martin a bit more but it wasn’t to be. And with the excellent performances from Francesco and Lee we have a real race on our hands.”

The top four in the Race to Dubai are separated by just €1m with an incredible €11.5m in prize money up for grabs at the last three events in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. The winner of the season-ending Dubai World Championship will take home more than €800,000. But with the runner up set to pocket over €550,000, McDowell knows he will have to cut Kaymer’s half a million euro lead in half over the next two weeks.

GMac said: “There is still a lot of money to play for so anything can happen. All I can do is try and play my best and if that means I still have a shot at winning the Order of Merit, great. I want to get to the Dubai World Championship knowing that if I were to win that tournament I can also win the Race—that’s the chance I want to give myself.”

While Westwood is resting this week, McDowell will be keeping a close eye on playing partner and world No. 14 Molinari. But there are other big fish looking to gobble up the €713,165 top prize with Masters winner Phil Mickelson and defending champion Ian Poulter also teeing it up.

Ireland has 10 men in action with Padraig Harrington gunning for his second win in the space of a month after ending his two-year drought in Malaysia just three weeks ago.

Harrington said: “The form is good. I’m looking to win. If I hole the putts, I’ll be competing on Sunday.”

The Race to Dubai - Top 4

1. Martin Kaymer €3,207,229

2. Graeme McDowell €2,675,423

3. Lee Westwood €2,362,143

4. Francesco Molinari €2,201,614

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.

Martin Kaymer’s Quiet Golf Takeover

MARTIN KAYMER IS A SOFT-spoken German with the skills and nerve of an international cat burglar. On Sunday, the 25-year-old was spotted slipping away from the Old Course with yet another piece of valuable hardware, his third trophy caper in 56 days. He is the first player since Tiger Woods in 2006 to win three consecutive titles on the European Tour.

While Lee Westwood is poised to take the No. 1 ranking away from Woods, Kaymer is sneaking up on both of them. His victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship moves him to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking behind Woods, Westwood and Phil Mickelson.

At St. Andrews on Sunday in cold and blustery conditions that produced plenty of sock hats and occasional over-sized mittens to warm hands, Kaymer posted a clever 66 that featured a birdie-birdie finish to win by three strokes. On the 17th, the famous Road Hole, he rolled in a lengthy putt from off the back of the green for an improbable birdie three. Then, at 18, Kaymer struck his approach shot from the paved road that crosses the fairway. The ball stopped six feet from the hole and rolled into the cup on the next stroke.

The German golf star flashed a grin like he had just cracked a safe and slipped the diamonds into his satchel, which, in a way, he had. The win was worth €580,046.40 and raises his season money total to €3,134,447. Kaymer now leads Graeme McDowell in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai by a wide margin.

“It was always one of my dreams to win here at St. Andrews,” he said.

Sure, why not? Martin Kaymer is checking a lot of things off his list in recent days. First major. (Check.) First Ryder Cup. (Check.) First win at the Old Course. (Check.)

In addition to winning the PGA Championship in August and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship this weekend, Kaymer took the KLM Open in the Netherlands in September. Except for a thrashing in Ryder Cup singles at the hands of Dustin Johnson, it’s been a near-perfect two months for the Dusseldorf native.

At the moment, Kaymer is the world’s hottest player. Perhaps he’s also on his way to being the world’s top-ranked player.

−The Armchair Golfer