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DP World Tour Championship tournament history

Just two weeks before the 2027 DP World Tour schedule kicks off with the BMW Australian PGA Championship - the 2026 season ends with the now traditional curtain closer - the DP World Tour Championship.

First staged 17 years ago, when the DP World Tour replicated the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup with its own version called the Race to Dubai, the DP World Tour Championship is the second Playoff event after last week's Abu Dhabi Championship and it's the fifth and final event of the Rolex Series.

It's a limited field event for the top 50 available in the standings and it usually determines who wins the Race to Dubai, something Rory McIlroy is seeking to do for the fifth year in-a-row!

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Venue

The Earth Course, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE.

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Course Details

Par 72, 7,706 yards

The Greg Norman designed Earth Course has been the event's venue since its inception. It's a long typical desert track with generous fairways and 99 bunkers. 

The Tifeagle Bermuda grass greens are large and undulating, with a lot of run-off areas, and they're usually set to run at 12 on the stimpmeter. Water is in-play on the 6th, the 14th and last three holes. 

It's a stunning finish that has the potential to produce much drama. The par three 17^th has an island green and the par five 18th, with water in play twice if you go for the green and three times if you lay-up, is an intriguing hole, where scores can vary greatly. 

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Weather Forecast

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TV coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 7:00 on Thursday.

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Last 10 winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2025 - Matt Fitzpatrick -18 22.021/1 (playoff)
2024 - Rory McIlroy -15 5.04/1
2023 - Nicolai Hojgaard -21 34.033/1
2022 - Jon Rahm -20 6.25/1
2021 - Collin Morikawa -17 10.09/1
2020 - Matthew Fitzpatrick -15 22.021/1
2019 - Jon Rahm -19 8.07/1
2018 - Danny Willett -18 150.0149/1
2017 - Jon Rahm -19 15.014/1
2016 - Matthew Fitzpatrick -17 110.0109/1

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A statistical look at the DP World Tour Championship?

The Earth Course is long, and the fairways are generous so it's no surprise to see that the longer hitters prosper.

Last year's winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, ranked only 12^th for Driving Distance but the man he beat in the playoff, the defending champ, Rory McIlroy, ranked first for the second year in-a-row and Nicolai Hojgaard also won when topping the DD rankings in 2023.

In all the years we've been coming here, 16^th is the worst any winner has ranked for DD so length has always been key.

Driving accuracy wasn't an essential prerequisite in the early days, however, over time, finding fairways has started to be far more important as the course has matured so you can't just indiscriminately bash it miles off the tee. Fitzpatrick ranked 10^th for Driving Accuracy last year, although the first and second in 2024 ranked only 31^st and 47^th.

Fitzpatrick ranked third for Greens In Regulation and McIlroy hit more greens than anyone else when winning two years ago.

As many as nine of the 17 course winners to date have ranked inside the top-four for Greens In Regulation but it can't be described as a really key stat given Jon Rahm only ranked 26^th for GIR on the first occasion he won here, Fitzpatrick ranked 21^st a decade ago, McIlroy only ranked 47^th back in 2012, and Hojgaard ranked only 28^th three years ago.

The 2021 winner, Collin Morikawa, only ranked 15th for Putting Average and Fitzpatrick ranked as high as 22^nd last year but this an event that's usually won on the greens.

The first two home in 2024 ranked third and second for PA, the first two in 2023 ranked second and fourth, and the first four home four years ago ranked first, fourth, seventh and second.

A good week with the putter is clearly important and the six winners before Morika in 2021 ranked fifth, first, first, third, second and fourth.

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Dubai Desert Classic form holds up very well

Anyone that plays desert golf well must be respected. 

The 2023 winner, Nicolai Hojgaard, won the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in 2022 and the three-time winner, Jon Rahm, has form in the States in the desert. His first high finish on the PGA Tour was at the Phoenix Open 11 years ago and he's a two-time winner of the Desert Classic in the Californian desert but the two events to really concentrate on are two the Spaniard is yet to play - the Dubai Desert Classic and the Qatar Masters. 

As many as four of the ten players to have won this event in its short history - Henrik Stenson (twice), McIlroy (thrice), Danny Willett and Alvaro Quiros - have all won the Dubai Desert Classic. 

The 2012 DDC winner, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, traded at just 1.4840/85 in this event in 2014 before throwing the tournament away at the 16th hole, and the English duo, Andy Sullivan and Matt Wallace, have finished runner-up in both events. 

In addition to winning this title, Robert Karlsson, Stenson and Quiros have also won in Qatar, and the inaugural winner, Lee Westwood, should arguably have won at all three venues. Westwood has contended numerous times in Qatar, and he's twice finished runner-up at the DDC. The same can be said of Cabrera-Bello, who was also runner-up in Qatar nine years ago. 

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Respect past winners

Stenson won the title back-to-back in 2013 and 2014 and when Fitzpatrick edged out McIlroy at the first extra hole last year, after Rory had driven in to the creek, he became the third man to win the title for a third time in just four years so we clearly have to give the former winners plenty of respect.

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Links lovers thrive?

We've now had 17 renewals of the DP World Tour Championship and three Open champions have won six editions (Morikawa, McIlroy x3 and Stensonx2) with two other Open winners, Shane Lowry and Paul Lawrie, finishing second.

The 2023 Alfred Dunhill Link Championship winner, Fitzpatrick, is now a three-time champ and the 2021 ADLC winner, Danny Willett, won the event in 2018.

Rahm, who's won the Irish Open on a links layout twice, has also won the event three times so links form really does come to the fore.

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Great event for market leaders and major champions

Danny Willett had started to show some glimpses of a resurgence before he won here eight years ago. He'd finished inside the top eight at both the Italian and Irish Opens and he'd sat second at halfway before finishing seventh in his penultimate start, in the Turkish Airlines Open, but he went off at around 150.0149/1.

He was the first really big outsider to win, the second to be matched at a triple-figure price, the first to be described as largely out of form and he was just the second winner in ten years not to have won an event somewhere earlier in the season.

Although he's gone on to win four times since, Fitzpatrick hadn't won anywhere last year before winning here and he hadn't won for two years when he claimed the title for a second time in 2020. The 2023 champ, Hojgaard, and Stenson, in 2014, are the only others to win here without lifting a trophy earlier in the season.

All the winners have been top-class players and Fitzpatrick, when winning here for the first time 10 years ago, and Willett two years later, are the only two to be matched at a triple-figure price before the off. 

Hogaard, who was a 33/134.00 chance three years ago, and the 2011 winner, Alvaro Quiros, who was matched at odds of 44.043/1, are the only other remotely big priced winners of the event. 

Rory was the 4/15.00 favourite in 2024, Rahm was very well backed four years ago, going off at around 5/16.00, and having won the Open Championship a few months earlier, Morikawa was a well-fancied 9/1 chance in 2021. 

The tournament has a history of going to the fancied players so backing long-shots looks like a pointless exercise. 

Year after year the cream rises to the top and the 13 of the last 14 renewals have been won by a major champion. 

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Winner's position and Betfair Exchange price pre-round four

2025 - Matt Fitzpatrick - tied third, trailing by one 11.521/2
2024 - Rory McIlroy - tied for the lead with two others 2.447/5
2023 - Nicolai Hojgaard - tied fifth, trailing by three 17.016/1
2022 - Jon Rahm - led by one 2.427/5
2021 - Collin Morikawa - tied fifth, trailing by four 10.09/1
2020 - Matthew Fitzpatrick - tied for the lead 5.24/1
2019 - Jon Rahm - tied for the lead 2.0621/20
2018 - Danny Willett - tied for the lead 5.69/2
2017 - Jon Rahm - tied second - trailing by one 4.77/2
2016 - Matthew Fitzpatrick - tied second - trailing by one 6.86/1

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In-play trends at the Earth Course

Given he sat tied for 18^th and five adrift after round one and tied 13^th and six back at halfway, Fitzpatrick was an unusual course winner 12 months ago.

Rahm sat tied for 14^th and five off the lead after he'd shot a two-under-par 70 in round one four years ago and that's the only time the winner has begun the event with a round in the 70s.

Fitzpatrick opened with a 69 last year and every winner bar Rahm in 2022 has started with a round in the 60s so this is most certainly a frontrunner's track.

Rory sat first or second after every round in 2024 and Hojgaard led after rounds one and two when he won three years ago. The first seven winners, and 13 of the 17 to date, all opened-up with a round of 68 or better and they were all inside the top six places after day one.

Rahm was bang there at halfway four years ago, following a six-under-par 66 on Friday, which saw him sit tied for fifth, trailing by four, and 12 months earlier, Morikawa had sat sixth and two off the lead after 36 holes. Like Rory two years ago, the three winners before Morikawa had sat second at halfway and four of the first five winners here were in front after 36 holes.

Fitzpatrick last year and Robert Karlsson, who also won in a play-off, 16 years ago, are the only winners here not to be within four of the lead and sitting inside the top eight at halfway.

Fitzpatrick sat tied third and one off the lead with 18 to play last year and Karlsson, Morikawa and Hojgaard all trailed by three in fifth place with 18 to play but they're the only four winners not to be sitting first or second with 18 to play and 11 of the 17 winners have been leading or tied for the lead with a round to go.

If you're betting in-running, beware the tricky finish where we've witnessed drama aplenty over the years with all four finishing holes determining the outcome of the event at various times so it's been a great place to trade long odds-on shots in-play. 

The 16th is a fairly difficult par four with strategically placed fairway bunkers that really caught out Rafa Cabrera-Bello 12 years ago and the par three 17th is also tough, but it was the short par four 15^th that dramatically changed the landscape of the 2021 edition when Rory McIlroy caught an awful break... 

Some times you can be too accurate... An awful break for @McIlroyRory on 15. #DPWTC | #RolexSeries https://t.co/nGHdWSrprD

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 21, 2021

Tyrrell Hatton was matched at odds-on on five separate occasions during round four a decade ago and he hit a low of 1.132/15 when he made a miraculous par save at the 17^th hole but with the event at his mercy, he drove in to the water on the 18^th and Fitzpatrick made birdie there to pip him by one.

Rory was matched at as low as 1.341/3 just after making the turn in round four last year but after his fifth birdie of the day at the 11^th, he played his next five holes in two-over-par.

With Rory and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen both trailing by two with just the 18^th to play, Fitzpatrick was matched at 1.11/10 before Rory pulled this eagle three out of the bag but nine years after Hatton had handed the title to Fitzpatrick by driving into the drink on the 72^nd hole, Rory emulated him at the first playoff hole.

RORY MCILROY! He eagles the 72nd hole to send the season finale to a play-off! #DPWTC | #RolexSeries https://t.co/MkS4mJlqlj

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 16, 2025

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