Would you believe that there are only nine events left on the European Tour this term?
Okay, there’s a little thing called the Ryder Cup in between now and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews the first weekend of October (note to self – select Fantasy Race to Dubai Team before jetting off to Lanzarote on the 6th), but the season’s well and truly entering its final stages as we enter autumn officially on Saturday, when both daylight and nighttime last twelve hours apiece.
European Tour 2012 – Oct & Nov Schedule
(opens as pdf with active links on click-thru)
Here’s a quick run-down of the remaining 2012 European Tour events, with all but the aforementioned trip to Scotland and the following week’s trip to Vilamoura for the Portuguese Masters taking place in the southern hemisphere. The guys and gals at the European Tour know how to get themselves out of the cool run up to winter, don’t they?
In my article for Sports Monger on the Green this weekend, I alluded to the fact that RoMac had just about got everything wrapped up for the season. But if you look at the Race to Dubai rankings, below left, there’s still a Rose that could be a thorn in McIlroy’s side, Justin time for Dubai.
If you’re taking recent form into consideration, you’d say that the Holywood man will go on to win the FedEx Cup and both money lists either side of The Atlantic. But Rose, who was Europe’s top home soil earner for the majority of the early part of the season, is only half a million Euro behind Rory. The money left on offer on the European Tour, worked out at today’s Dollar/Euro rate of $1.00/€0.69 where the purse is offered in dollar$, means that a couple of wins for Justin in the last nine events could see the lead swap again.
Of course, swapping leads will be no alien concept for McIlroy, whose pass the parcel with Luke this season for the OWGR number one spot has been well documented. But Rose will at least want to finish the season on the same number of Tour events as Rory to put him on an even footing, having currently played ten to the Northern Irishman’s eleven, before they head to Dubai for the season’s showcase finale, where a whopping £8M is up for grabs in total.
Race to Dubai – End September 2012 Rankings
But the Alfred Dunhill’s three weeks away and there’s that small matter of Medinah CC in Illinois in a little over ten days time to get our heads around first before we start contemplating the OWGR, FedEx and Race to Dubai final standings. For that, at least, Luke, Rory and Justin will all be batting for the same team as Team Europe look to defend the Ryder Cup won so valiantly at Celtic Manor two autumns hence.
More on the RtD rankings later this week – Luke and Lee at tenth and eleventh respectively? Surely that’s a typo, innit? Mm, when you consider their joint lack of top twenty penetration since mid-season and Tiger’s usurping them both for the world number two spot, maybe not…
Get Thet, Go!! 