Eugenio Chacarra, Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy will start together at 11.50am on Thursday in the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, according to the DP World Tour's 3 November tee-time release. The pairing puts the Race to Dubai's leading rivals in the final opening group at Yas Links.
Race leaders share the last start
The Tour has arranged opening groups in reverse order of the Race to Dubai standings for the first time at this play-off event. Chacarra leads those standings after overtaking Reed with his DP World India Championship victory. Reed follows, with McIlroy next in the season-long contest.
All groups will start from the first tee. Casey Jarvis, another player the Tour says could finish the week on top, is in the preceding group with defending Abu Dhabi champion Aaron Rai and Daniel Hillier. The published draw therefore keeps the leading title contenders close together through the opening round, while Jarvis begins just before them.
The Tour also identifies Chacarra, Reed, Jarvis and Hillier as players positioned for PGA Tour membership next season through the standings. That adds a separate season-long outcome to their contest in Abu Dhabi. The round has not yet been played, so the draw establishes only their starting order.
What the play-off format changes
SportsRivo compared the tee-time release with the DP World Tour's separate play-off explainer. The draw groups the current Race to Dubai leaders, while the Abu Dhabi results will determine which leading available players advance to the Dubai finale. The Tour says the Abu Dhabi field consists of the leading seventy available players; only the leading fifty available players continue to the final event.
The Abu Dhabi event begins the Tour's closing run at Yas Links. The Dubai championship follows at Jumeirah Golf Estates the next week, where the season-long Race to Dubai champion will be decided. Chacarra begins this stretch ahead of Reed and McIlroy, but the Tour's own preview leaves the final ranking open.
Stakes from the opening round
- Chacarra will play alongside his nearest title challengers, Reed and McIlroy, rather than learning their opening scores from a separate group.
- Jarvis starts in the preceding group with Rai and Hillier, giving another potential rankings leader a nearby start.
- Abu Dhabi's final positions will settle who qualifies for the Dubai finale; the tee-time pairing itself does not decide those places.
Next stop after Abu Dhabi
The DP World Tour says the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship starts on Thursday. Its separate play-off explainer says the Dubai field will be finalised after the Abu Dhabi event. Both tournaments remain ahead of the players at the time of this report.
Source: DP World Tour