Jon Rahm: 'My fault' Race to Dubai is not on the line at DP World Tour Championship

Rory McIlroy, party-pooper. It seems odd to think that surely the most watchable player in world golf has rendered the season finale less of a spectacle than it might have been. And all by being just too good.

For the first time, the DP World Tour Championship will not matter to the final season count-up. McIlroy was already crowned the Race to Dubai champion with a week still to play.

It means Europe's leading 50 players will be competing for tournament honours only at Jumeirah Golf Estates this weekend, with no bearing on the order of merit title.

Jon Rahm will play with McIlroy in the last match out, at 12.45pm on Thursday. Rahm has won at the Earth Course in three of the past six seasons, and is keen to strike another blow there, saying “hopefully I can win one more time”.

“I think it's more disappointing for the fans,” Rahm said of the fact the rankings race is no longer still alive.

“If I was just within one point, probably it would be a very unlikely scenario of Rory needing to finish a long way down the leaderboard, which I don't think has ever happened here.

“At the same time, though, it's really my fault. He played great golf. I could have tried to get more points to give myself a chance this week. He did what he needed to do. I didn't.”

McIlroy has led the standings since he entered the race by winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club in January.

Given how life has panned out in the time since, it seems odd to think the Northern Irishman arrived for the Classic in mediocre humour.

He had been subpoenaed by Patrick Reed on Christmas Eve. There was a “storm in a teacup”, to use his words, over a thrown tee peg by the same player on the range ahead of that tournament.

Then the Classic