It was fitting to see Lee Westwood win the Race to Dubai on Sunday.
The British Masters was our first event back on home soil following the Covid-19 outbreak and I can remember attending a committee meeting where Lee, who was the host of the tournament, asking Keith Pelley, the European Tour chief executive, what do you need me to do as host?
Since then Lee has been a regular feature on the tour this year, playing the role of stalwart brilliantly. To see him support the tour right to the very end and then win the Race to Dubai was a great way to end the season.
As I said last week, I wouldn’t have complained had Patrick Reed become the first American winner of our order of merit. He enjoys playing on our tour and his support has been terrific.
But of course I’m pleased for Lee and I never tire of seeing one of the old guard giving the other elder statesmen hope.
What a finish we had too on Sunday in Dubai.
Longest spans between first and most recent Order of Merit wins in Tour history:
* Westwood, 20 years
* Seve, 15 years
* Monty, 12 years#DPWTC #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/4deL5ostBZ— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) December 14, 2020
I still laugh when I think of how we can play all these events in a season, yet something as big as the order of merit comes down to the final hole of the final tournament.
The Rolex Series and the Race to Dubai has become a tried-and-tested format for the European Tour and Jumeirah Estates is the perfect venue too.
The 18th hole is a par-5 and with eagles as well as bogeys on offer depending on what you need to do standing on the final tee it makes for high drama.
Matthew Fitzpatrick’s win at the DP World Championship was incredible too. He raced out the blocks then had to dig deep towards the end to claim victory.
While Lee and Matthew had cause for celebration on Sunday, I felt for Bob MacIntyre after his disappointing final round.
Bob and I have the same manager in Iain Stoddart and I texted Iain saying, as down as Bob will have felt at seeing his chance of victory disappear with a poor final round, he will learn so much from it.
He was playing with Patrick Reed for all the marbles when he teed off in his final round. Two years ago he was playing on the Challenge Tour.
He was rookie of the year in 2019 and has gone on to win his first tour title this year.
He’s doing just fine and at the risk of piling the pressure on him he’s a guy I know is capable of challenging for majors in the future.
It’s no shock that a player stalls in the final round when he needs it most, but it can happen for several reasons. It could be emotional, physical or simply bad luck.
Bob may reflect on the fact he just couldn’t hole anything and his play was otherwise solid.
If that is the case then he just needs to trust in the process and hope that next time he gets that rub of the green that was missing.
Scots’ leading role
I’m delighted to see Scotland at the forefront of the game in 2021 with three Scottish tournaments with a combined prize fund of £15 million to look forward to next year.
The Scottish Open keeping its date just before the Open was the big one we were all waiting for and it’s great to see it maintain not only its date in the calendar, but also its status as a Rolex Series event.
There will only be four of them now and my understanding is that it is a deliberate tactic from the European Tour.
We already have four majors and four WGC events spaced out through the year and the feeling was having four Rolex Series events in the calendar was the logical way to go.
Conspicuous absences aren’t good for women’s game
Something has gone badly wrong for the LPGA Tour to reach its climax this week without two of this year’s major champions being eligible to take part in Florida.
Only the leading 70 players in the season-long standings qualify automatically for the Race to the CME Globe finale with the final two spots given to the sponsors.
I would have hoped the sponsor invites would account for any anomalies and I’m astounded neither Sophia Popov, the Women’s Open champion, and US Women’s Open winner A Lim Kim will be taking part.
Surely a major winner should be granted automatic entry?
For the good of the game and the watching audience, we want to see our champions and leading players going head to head and it does feel like an opportunity missed.
Hopefully the LPGA Tour officials can get together and find a solution so this scenario is avoided in the future.