The European golf tour reaches its final stages with the Final Series, four tournaments, with a total prize pool of 30,5 million dollars, which will decide the winner of the "championship".
Rory McIlroy, 26 years old, number three in the world, is the favorite in this race which will end in the Emirates on November 22nd. The Northern Irishman leads the Race to Dubai ahead of Briton Danny Willet and South African Louis Oosthuizen. The games begin today with the Turkish Airlines Open, at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Antalya in Turkey where there will be 78 players competing for the title, including no Italians.
The field is excellent, but not stellar. In fact, the only real star on the track is Rory, who will try to defend his position from his pursuers, among which Willet, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Bernd Wiesberger, Graeme McDowell, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Charl Schwartzel, Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
The Swede Henrik Stenson and the Spaniard Sergio Garcia instead this week have chosen the American circuit, which stops in Malaysia, already for the 2015-2016 tour. Britain's Justin Rose, winner last week in Hong Kong has decided to rest. Up for grabs are $7 million; the tournament is broadcast live on Sky Sports.
The Final Series will go on for almost the entire month of November: from 5 to 8 the challenge will move to China, for the WGC-HSBC Champions, a tournament common to the American tour, as it is a world championship; from 12 to 15 it will be the turn of the BMW Masters in Shanghai; grand finale in Dubai from 19 to 22.
The PGA Tour, as already mentioned, this week is in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, for the CIMB Classic. Ryan Moore defends the title in a field that includes in addition to Stenson and Garcia, Adam Scott, Patrick Reed, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Kevin Na, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Hideki Matsuyama. The prize pool is seven million dollars, with first coin of 1,260 million dollars.
