I was born in the wrong generation.
Recently, a clip resurfaced of Nick Faldo carving one of these long irons he’d routinely strike almost into the hole during the 1993 Match Play at Wentworth.
I replayed it many times, over and over. This was the generation of ball-strikers, especially in Europe. Throughout the 1980s, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, and Ronan Rafferty all competed for honours most weeks on the formerly named European Tour, now known as the DP World Tour.
That was also the generation of players winning the Order of Merit, now the Race to Dubai, who actually played golf in Europe. Rafferty finished top of the pile in 1989, having played 25 events.
That year, the Northern Irishman won three times: the Lancia Italian Open, the Scandinavian Enterprise and the Volvo Masters. There were some other real crackers on his record during this season. By that, I mean the tournaments that he played in: the Tenerife Open, the Jersey European Airways Open, the NM English Open, and the Panasonic European Open. Volvo sponsored four events alone.
A comical sidenote: the DP World Tour website has him down in the ’89 Ryder Cup side as tied for second.
Current Race to Dubai rankings
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That is the CV of a hardened Order of Merit winner, one that Tiger Woods might describe as ‘earned in the dirt’, with only one appearance in a major championship that year, too – a tie for 61st at The Open at Troon. Mark Calvavecchia beat Wayne Grady and Greg Norman in a playoff to win the tournament.
From 1993, when Colin Montgomerie won his first of seven consecutive Order of Merit titles, until 2010, only two players won the points list in Europe having played fewer than 20 events.
Four-time major winner Ernie Els won in 2003 and 2004, respectively, playing in 16 and 15 events. Englishman Justin Rose only played 12 events in 2007 but, to his credit, he won the MasterCard Masters, came second at the BMW PGA at Wentworth, second at the Alfred Dunhill and won the Volvo Masters in November.
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Since Luke Donald won the Race to Dubai in 2011, Tommy Fleetwood is the only player to have taken the season-ending trophy with more than 17 appearances on the tour. Rory McIlroy played in 22 events collectively in 2023 and 2024 on his way to Race to Dubai glory in both years, three fewer than the number his fellow countryman Rafferty circulated in 1989 alone. You must discount the majors there, too.
Last season, Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard and Thriston Lawrence played in 49 DP World Tour events between them and came second and third. McIlroy was top, having played in 12 counting events, but this was only seven non-majors and minus the Genesis Scottish Open, which is co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour.
Marco Penge: Race to Dubai title should be all his
There is now every chance that Marco Penge is going to miss out on the best moment of his career, so far, and succumb to McIlroy swooping in to take the glory. And while it should be noted that McIlroy won the Irish Open and came tied for fourth at the Dubai Desert Classic in 2025, it is still not right, and Penge’s year must be celebrated in the streets and beyond.
This is a guy who holed a knee-knocker in the second round of the Genesis Championship at the end of last season to make the cut and keep his playing rights on the circuit. That was his 30th tournament of the year, after earning his spot through the Challenge Tour Grand Final in 2023 (now the Hotel Planner tour).
When Penge rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th hole at the start of this month at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, it secured his third victory of the year by way of a playoff against fellow up-and-comer and Challenge Tour alumnus Dan Brown.
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He will post an almost identical season to Rafferty’s 36 years ago, and many other figures who came before him. But at least Rafferty could clutch the trophy on the flight home. As much as Penge will be delighted with the year he has had and the prize money he has bagged, the Race to Dubai might allude him, and that is a great shame.
The race ends at the DP World Tour Championship in November, the season finale and part two of the DP World Tour Playoffs, which begins the week before in Abu Dhabi. Penge and McIlroy will likely play in both events.
There is a somewhat perverse caveat to his story. Penge has already revealed that he and his partner Sophie are house-hunting in America to prepare for giving the PGA Tour a tilt in 2026. But for now, this is Penge’s moment, or it should be anyway.
It is these very players who spend all of their time in the States that swoop in, such as McIlroy, Donald and even Francesco Molinari (2018) and Collin Morikawa (2021), who both played minimally in exclusive DP World Tour events in the years that they won the Race to Dubai.
Molinari won The Open and the BMW PGA in his coronation year, making the points race a foregone conclusion. Morikawa also hoisted the Claret Jug but, before that, had won a WGC event played in Florida, which banked him several points.
Too many times do the squeaky clean stars swoop in with their bag of Race to Dubai points from the majors and co-sanctioned US events, to steal the title from the rugged, grinding journeymen who have backpacked across Europe for months and months.
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It’s time for a change. Make the Race to Dubai title eligible at a 15-event limit, or something.
Go after the FedEx Cup title all you want, that is the path you have chosen. Europe’s top prize should be for Penge, for Rafferty, the ones who have put in the hard yards.
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What do you make of this Rory McIlroy Race to Dubai column? Would you make Rory McIlroy Race to Dubai champion, or Marco Penge? Tell us on X!
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