Golf in Dubai Championship: Your European Tour form guide

Another late addition to the European Tour schedule is this week's Golf in Dubai Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Sponsored by Dubai-based logistics company DP World, the tournament is very much a curtain raiser to next week's lucrative Tour finale.

Although hosted by the same Jumeirah Golf Estates complex, this week's event is being played over the Fire course, rather than the Earth layout which has staged the DP World Tour Championship since 2009.

The Golf in Dubai Championship will start on Wednesday and finish on Saturday, and has attracted a reasonable, if not top-class, field.

Even though total prize money is less than one-sixth of that being offered at next week's grand finale, those teeing-up will be keen to acclimatise themselves ahead of the tournament that will decide who ends up as the European Tour's No 1 golfer for 2020.

While this week's result is unlikely to have any bearing on which player tops the end of season standings, there are still plenty of pros battling for a spot in next week's tournament.

Latest betting for this year's Race to Dubai title

Following this week's events in Dubai and South Africa, the top 60 golfers in the Race to Dubai table will qualify for the DP World Tour Championship.

The Fire course was designed by Greg Norman and is around 300 yards shorter than the more-famous Earth - which is also the work of the Great White Shark.

Autumn stars

Among the form players teeing-up in Dubai are Robert MacIntyre and Aaron Rai.

The 24-year-old Macintyre is on a run of three straight top-10s, including a maiden European Tour title in Cyprus.

Although this win was not achieved in a traditional 72-hole stroke play event, the world No 61 will be full of confidence when he tees-up on Fire.

His last two visits to Dubai yielded a tied-8th at Emirates, and tied-14th over the Earth course. Both of these events had considerably stronger fields than this week's tournament.

Check out the latest betting ahead of this week's Golf in Dubai Championship

As for Rai, his Middle East history is not as promising as MacIntyre's, but the Englishman has been one of the Tour's better players during autumn.

This was highlighted by his victory at the Scottish Open, a Rolex Series event, in which he beat Tommy Fleetwood via a play-off.

Regional history

Germany's Martin Kaymer has enjoyed a mini-revival in recent months, although is still without a victory since his US Open success six-and-a-half years ago.

The 35-year-old has a strong record in the region - plenty of podiums and victories between 2008 and 2013 - and has already qualified for the end-of-season finale over the Earth course.

Another pro with a good record in the Middle East is Tom Lewis. The 29-year-old, however, would need to turn around his mediocre current form having spent most of his time this year on the PGA Tour.

World No 39 Bernd Wiesberger is the highest-ranked golfer teeing-up on Wednesday, while Danny Willett - a two-time winner in Dubai - may also be worth a look.

Twitter: Andy Swales@GolfStatsAlive

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves