The PGA Tour has the FedEx Cup. The DP World Tour equivalent is the Race to Dubai and the DP World Tour Playoffs. Let’s take a look at what it is.
The Race to Dubai is a season-long competition on the DP World Tour schedule, culminating in a season finale, the DP World Tour Championship for the top 50 players in the rankings.
The top 70 players reach the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship the week before the DP World Tour Championship, before the cut-off to 50 players for the finale. These two events make up the DP World Tour Playoffs.
The final event of the regular season is the Genesis Championship in South Korea, which finished at the end of October.
The season is divided into different sections. The opening swing began in Australia in November and finished in Mauritius towards the end of December.
The International Swing started in January and reached the start of March, when the Asian Swing began. The European Swing then began at the start of May.
The Closing Swing started with the Genesis Scottish Open, in the week before The Open, and the Back 9 got underway with the Betfred British Masters at the end of August. The Back 9 is the last extended period before the two-event DP World Tour Playoffs.
The Race to Dubai is used to crown the tour’s number one golfer by accumulating points from each event that a player participates in and the winner is the golfer with the most points at the end of the season. It was formerly known as the Order of Merit until 2009.
DP World Tour Championship
The season-ending event is the DP World Tour Championship and is only for the top 50 players in the standings. These 50 players will battle to win the season’s finale and the lion’s share of the $10 million prize purse.
The DP World Tour Championship is played on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.
In 2025, Matt Fitzpatrick won the DP World Tour Championship, but it was Rory McIlroy who won the Race to Dubai for the fourth time in a row, and the seventh time in total.
Some of the world’s best players have won the event, including McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood.
Below is a list of the players who have won the Race to Dubai in recent years.
Winners of the Race to Dubai
2009 Lee Westwood
2010 Martin Kaymer
2011 Luke Donald
2012 Rory McIlroy
2013 Henrik Stenson
2014 Rory McIlroy
2015 Rory McIlroy
2016 Henrik Stenson
2017 Tommy Fleetwood
2018 Francesco Molinari
2019 Jon Rahm
2020 Lee Westwood
2021 Collin Morikawa
2022 Rory McIlroy
2023 Rory McIlroy
2024 Rory McIlroy
2025 Rory McIlroy
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The post How does the Race to Dubai work? appeared first on National Club Golfer.
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