Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood eye exclamation point to memorable 2025 seasons at DP World Tour Championship

The DP World Tour's season wraps up this week in the same part of the world where it kicked off the new year. Coming full circle, the top 50 players will tee it up at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai for the DP World Tour Championship.

The top of the standings in the season-long race features names and faces most would not recognize, but that's the fun in it -- there's something different on the line for everyone. For 10 players in particular, playing privileges on the PGA Tour in 2026 are up for grabs.

As it stands, 11 of the top 16 in the Race to Dubai are non-PGA Tour members. The other five are Rory McIlroy (No. 1 despite playing just 10 DP World Tour events in 2025), Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Aaron Rai and Tommy Fleetwood. The latter three have been recent winners and contenders, quickly boosting their positions.

While anyone can win the DP World Tour Championship, only the top three in the Race to Dubai -- McIlroy, Marco Penge and Hatton -- can don the year-long crown by week's end. McIlroy has almost an 800-point edge over Penge with 2,000 points being awarded to the winner and 57.60 points to the player who finishes last in the 50-man field. As for Hatton, he will need a prayer and then some coming from north of 1,700 points off the pace.

2025 Race to Dubai standings

Meanwhile, at the onset of the week, the PGA Tour bubble boy is Jordan Smith of England, who is more than 100 points clear of Martin Couvra of France. That margin can easily be overcome, as we saw just last year with Paul Waring going from obscurity to PGA Tour member thanks to his first win in six years in the penultimate event, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, over Hatton.

Waring entered that week as No. 229 in the Official World Golf Rankings and played his way onto the PGA Tour, where the 40-year-old looked much like a player ranked outside the top 200 in the world. Despite the season he put together, Waring's rise illustrates how all it takes is one good tournament to change one's fortunes. 

For the McIlroys and Fleetwoods of the world, there are no concerns over where they will be playing next season, but rather what they could still possibly accomplish this season. It has been a year filled with historic implications, cleared hurdles and even some down spells for both men, yet it's a campaign that still has some juice to be squeezed.

McIlroy has a chance to claim yet another Race to Dubai crown, and it may be financially irresponsible to bet against him. (McIlroy is also a 4-1 favorite to win the DP World Tour Championship, per DraftKings.) He has a total of six Race to Dubai titles under his belt, including an active streak of three, which pulled him alongside Seve Ballesteros for the second most in DP World Tour history. Collin Montgomerie leads the way with eight.

Meanwhile, Fleetwood may not have a chance to claim that title, but he can nevertheless finish his season with a bang while claiming a slice of history. Only McIlroy and Henrik Stenson have won the Race to Dubai and the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup in the same year, but McIlroy did so without winning the DP World Tour Championship. Fleetwood is the second favorite behind McIlroy for the DP World Tour Championship at 11/2.

Fleetwood could technically be the second player, along with Stenson, to win the DP World Tour Championship and the Tour Championship in the same season. Although not the climax of a season-long race like his PGA Tour triumph, a win this week would cap off what has been a transformational season for the lovable Englishman.

McIlroy's memorable year

Rory's 2025 has felt like a stock index setting a record year with all signings pointing to it finishing at a new high. And like a stock, when digging into the week-to-week data more closely, it is hardly a surprise to see ups and downs, heaters and cold spells. 

It started with an intense focus as McIlroy dusted the field at Pebble Beach and baptized J.J. Spaun at The Players Championship, leading to the longest day in the history of golf -- Sunday at the Masters -- where he lost and won the green jacket what seemed like a million times over. 

With the Masters and career grand slam finally in his pocket, McIlroy was seen as being a player with a "weight lifted off his shoulders," the contention being that he would go on a tear through the sport, stacking up victory after victory.

But that's the funny thing about accomplishing a lifelong dream: Without them pushing you, a new source of motivation and drive needs to be found.

McIlroy wandered for a bit and got stuck in some brush from time to time, whether that was the non-conforming driver at the PGA Championship, at which many believed he would dominate, or the back-and-forth with the media for much of the summer. It was all just kind of awkward.

McIlroy took some time off and regathered himself. In doing so, he rediscovered his mojo, much like Austin Powers. A runner-up result at the Scottish Open preceded a solid run at The Open in his home country of Northern Ireland. It did not take an expert to know he did not care much for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but his ears perked up once again when he returned to the K Club for the Irish Open, which he won in a playoff.

Remaining on his schedule was the Ryder Cup, at which he became the center of attention for New York fans and the center of celebrations once his good friend, Shane Lowry, clinched the cup on Sunday. 

That brings the year full circle to the DP World Tour Championship, entering which, a couple of notions about McIlroy hold true: (1) When he cares and remains engaged, he's a bad, bad man. (2) Much like the stock market, some weeks may feel like a rollercoaster, but by the end of the year, more times than not, he'll be up.

Fleetwood's flurry

Apparently, all it takes is three months to change the world's perception of you. Noted as a "choker", "loser," "[insert whatever shortcoming descriptor]" by fans, Fleetwood has gone on to win the Tour Championship and thus the FedEx Cup, star for a winning European Ryder Cup team and claim the India Championship on the DP World Tour -- all since the end of August.

Fleetwood would have been in the field at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship no matter his rank in the Race to Dubai given his part in the Ryder Cup, but he got in through his own play thanks to his win at Delhi GC. He entered the postseason No. 26, climbed to No. 10 with his playoff loss to Rai and looks to continue his run of form, which has tended to peak in his residential lands of … the Middle East.

In his last six DP World Tour Championships, Fleetwood has finished inside the top five on three separate occasions, including runner-up results in 2019 and 2023. His play at last week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship course, Yas Links, was less extensive but still showed promise as he led the tournament for most of the week.

But never has this Fleetwood shown up: the one who is No. 4 in the OWGR, No. 2 in Data Golf rankings and No. 3 in my super official "who has been the best player this year" rankings, which puts him behind only Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy. He may look the same, swing the same and smile the same, but make no mistake, he is not the same.

The next 10

This year marks the third season in which the PGA Tour has awarded dual membership to individuals, not otherwise exempt, who finish inside the top 10 in the Race to Dubai. The pathway has added a layer of drama to the season finale, which has occasionally lacked it due to the leader's points advantage.

Matthieu Pavon made birdies on his final four holes of the DP World Tour Championship to knock Rasmus Højgaard out of the final spot in 2023. The Frenchman then won the Farmers Insurance Open over Rasmus' twin brother, Nicolai, at the start of the 2024 season, confirming his place on the PGA Tour for the next two years while also ensuring his absence from the Højgaard holiday card mailing list.

However, following that moment from Pavon and his subsequent contention run at Pinehurst No. 2 that summer, European players have yet to fare well.

Looking at the 2025 FedEx Cup standings, none of the players who gained their cards via the Race to Dubai earned a spot in the postseason. Tom McKibbin likely had the best year -- and just punched his ticket into the Masters and The Open by winning the Hong Kong Open -- but he did not play on the PGA Tour and instead took his talents to LIV Golf, joining Jon Rahm's team.

Højgaard (the Rasmus variety) was the top finisher of the bunch and did enough to retain his card at No. 76 in the FedEx Cup standings, while Thorbjørn Olesen just climbed inside the top 100 thanks to his T3 finish at the Bank of Utah Championship. Outside of the two Danes, one would have to scroll somewhere in the No. 150 range to find the rest of the lot. Not good!

This crew does look different, though. Seven of the top 10 are over 30. One of the three outliers, Keita Nakajima, was the top amateur in the world for more than a year and a half, while another has been the best player to tee it up primarily on the DP World Tour this year.

Fresh off his three-month suspension for betting on golf events (none of which he was in the field), Penge poses as McIlroy's main threat for the Race to Dubai title. The Englishman kept his DP World Tour card by the skin of his teeth in 2024 and has responded with three wins in 2025, the latest at the Spanish Open, which earned him invitations into the Masters and The Open. 

Talk about a parlay!

Penge is up to No. 29 in the OWGR, while Alex Noren finds himself inside the top 20 and only in that position due to injury. The Swede has a couple of avenues to secure his PGA Tour card, as he could still get inside the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings, but the DP World Tour route appears more plausible given his two recent wins, including the BMW PGA Championship.

Haotong Li was laughing his way to the bank alongside Scheffler in the final group at The Open, while Laurie Canter has played events on the Challenge Tour, LIV Golf, PGA Tour and DP World Tour in addition to major championships since the beginning of 2024. 

If venturing a guess, at least three of the top 10 players who earn their PGA Tour cards for next season should retain them heading into 2027. But then again, I would not consider myself a gambling man.