European Tour: Kaymer and McIlroy Chase Luke Donald in Race to Dubai

The European Tour season is rapidly drawing to a close, with the Dubai World Championships just one week away. 

Rory McIlroy, who is in third place on the Race to Dubai (R2D) money list, is teeing it up this week in the UBS Hong Kong Open.  This is an officially sanctioned event on the European Tour and will count toward the R2D money list. 

The first-place money in Hong Kong will be around €300,000 Euro.  Even if McIlroy could scratch out a win this week, he would still be nearly €800,000 behind current R2D leader Luke Donald.

Speaking of Donald, he has been at home tending to a newborn and dealing with the death of his father earlier this month.  He is attempting to become the first player ever to both win the American PGA money title—which he has already accomplished—and capture the European money title in the same year. 

But Donald has not played since his dramatic win to overtake Webb Simpson on the PGA money list at Disney last month.

Martin Kaymer, who is in second place in the R2D, and Donald will both play this week in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, Johannesburg, South Africa.  It will be a big payday for the 12 elite players, who will split up the $5 million purse. This is unofficial money, though, and will not count toward the R2D.

Money is money, however, and such a purse will keep a young family like the Donalds in formula and diapers for some time.

The showdown will come next week in Dubai.  With a total purse of €5.5 million (close to $7.5 million if my math is correct), the winner in Dubai will earn somewhere around €800,000. 

Kaymer is currently €1.1 million behind Luke; McIlroy will be closer than that depending on where he finishes this week in Hong Kong. 

Luke Donald has his fate in his own hands.  Even if Kaymer or McIlroy win the Dubai World Championships, a top 10 finish would certainly be sufficient to secure the European money title for Donald.

Donald has now been the No. 1 ranked player in the world for 27 weeks.  That is longer than anyone else has ever held the No. 1 spot—except for Greg Norman and the guy that wears the red shirt on Sunday, Tiger Woods.

Still, Luke Donald gets no respect because he doesn’t have a major title in his trophy case.  Maybe he can pick up a green jacket or claret jug in 2012.

I wouldn’t bet against him—the baby may need new shoes.