Rory McIlroy moved to the top of the projected Race To Dubai rankings after Eugenio Chacarra’s birdie at the par-three sixth, but the lead did not stay there for long. Chacarra answered with a 15-foot birdie putt of his own at the same hole to pull level again during the final day of the DP World Tour Championship.
That was the point of the day: one swing on the leaderboard could decide both the season-long race and McIlroy’s chance to match Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight European tour titles. If McIlroy won, he would equal that mark; if Chacarra won, he would claim his first Race to Dubai title, and he could also take it by finishing ahead of McIlroy.
The pressure was not limited to the two players at the top. Tyrrell Hatton, who was chasing his first DP World Tour Championship title, could still finish only third in the season-long race after a bogey at the 229-yard par-three fourth, where he found sand off the back edge and failed to save par. Victor Perez also dropped a shot there after a bunker shot and a weak follow-up putt.
Chacarra had already shown the kind of round that could keep the contest alive. He made a par-saving putt from about 15 feet after finding rough off the tee and then short-siding himself in more rough with his second shot, a recovery that kept him within reach of McIlroy as the final round tightened.
Oliver Lindell was living a different version of the same nerves. He was ninth on the list for PGA Tour cards when the day began and was projected to miss out, but a hat-trick of birdies on the front nine and another at 12 left him four under through 12 holes and just about inside the top 10 as the live update changed. That movement matters because the same final round is deciding not only the Race to Dubai but the order of the cards beneath it.
The last word still belongs to the scorecard. The final round is not over, and the only outcome that counts is the one posted when the holes are finished and the projected picture becomes the real one.
