The DP World Tour Championship, which starts on Thursday at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in the United Arab Emirates, isn’t lacking in familiar names. The contenders include the major champions Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Shane Lowry.
A winner will also be crowned in the season-long Race to Dubai. It will either be McIlroy, who enjoys a substantial lead, or Thriston Lawrence. Others pointed to receive the extra payout that goes to the top 10 in the final standings — first place will receive $2 million — include Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre.
Here are five to keep an eye on:
Matteo Manassero
Manassero, 31, was supposed to be the next big thing in professional golf.
Consider what he accomplished as a 16-year-old amateur in 2009:
Youngest winner ever of the British Amateur.
The low amateur in the British Open at Turnberry in Scotland, finishing just four strokes behind Stewart Cink and Tom Watson.
The No. 1-ranked amateur in the world.
Bottom line: The future for the star from Northern Italy was limitless.
Correction: Definitely limitless.
He turned pro in 2010 and picked up his first tour victory that October, followed by one triumph apiece in 2011, 2012 and 2013. But after that, he didn’t win on the DP World Tour for the next 11 years.
“The good thing was that I was young enough to have the time to turn things around,” he said. “If it had all happened when I was 35 or so, it might have been different.”
Manassero has turned things around, all right. This year he captured the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa and is in 10th place in the Race to Dubai.
Joe Dean
How can golf fans not pay attention to Dean after the journey he’s been on this season?
Consider this: Because of financial issues, Dean, 30, who is from England, didn’t compete on the DP World Tour until February. In fact, on the week before he tied for second in the Magical Kenya Open in Nairobi, he was driving a delivery van for a supermarket in Britain.
“It’s got to be [life changing],” Dean later told the BBC. “It’s what people dream of.”
In Kenya, he finished two strokes behind Darius Van Driel.
“Still some gremlins to get past in order to get to my full potential,” he told the BBC, “but like anyone you’ve got to get over them, squash them and keep going.”
He kept going, all right. In May, Dean tied for fifth in the Soudal Open in Belgium, and a month later, tied for second at the KLM Open in Amsterdam.
Dean is in 34th place in the Race to Dubai.
Rasmus Hojgaard
Hojgaard, whose twin, Nicolai, plays on the PGA Tour, is a young gun we are likely to hear a great deal about in the future.
Hojgaard, 23, who is from Denmark, has won five times on the DP World Tour, including this year’s Amgen Irish Open, where he birdied the last three holes to beat McIlroy by a stroke. One of those birdies came on 17 when he holed out from a bunker. With the victory, Hojgaard became the youngest player with five tour victories since Spain’s José Maria Olazábal in 1989.
“The game’s been trending for a while now, and to get this one is massive,” he said afterward.
In 2025, Hojgaard, who is in third place, will join his brother on the PGA Tour. Nicolai Hojgaard will also be in the field at Dubai.
Thriston Lawrence
Lawrence of South Africa hasn’t won a tour event in 2024, although he’s come close — most notably in the BMW PGA Championship, where he lost to Horschel in a playoff.
He was also in the hunt at the British Open, where he finished fourth, three behind Xander Schauffele. Lawrence was leading by one going into the final nine, but didn’t make a birdie the rest of the way.
“Being in that moment, I felt so calm,” said Lawrence, who occupies second place in the standings. “It felt like a normal Sunday, me trying to win a golf tournament, trying to be creative and I managed to accomplish that. So very proud of myself.”
Lawrence, 27, who has won four times on tour since turning pro in 2014, came in second at the Dubai Invitational in January, the Jonsson Workwear Open in March and at the Betred British Masters in September.
Safe to say he is due.
Ángel Hidalgo
Hidalgo, 26, captured the Open de España in September, outdueling Jon Rahm, his fellow Spaniard, at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, with a birdie on the second playoff hole.
It wasn’t merely that he defeated a player of Rahm’s caliber. He did it with Rahm, the former world No. 1 and the two-time major champion, as his playing partner and in a tournament Rahm was attempting to win for the fourth time.
Hidalgo, who hadn’t finished in the top three in his first 79 tour events, almost blew it, missing a four-footer on the final hole to win the tournament in regulation.
“Insane, absolutely insane,” Hidalgo said afterward. “It was weird because I was pretty relaxed all day, even when I missed this short putt on hole 72.”
Hidalgo, who enters the week in 24th place, struggled in his next two starts, but rebounded in October with a tie for 20th at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters in Spain.
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