Rory McIlroy, the DP World Tour Championship’s defending champion, conceded he will have to conjure something close to his best-ever round on Sunday if he is to keep the trophy for another year. The world No 6 carded a four-under-par 68 on Saturday to creep into a tie for eighth place, but with Henrik Stenson leading, on seven shots better off, McIlroy said he would need to recapture the sort of form that in 2010 saw him clinch the Quail Hollow Championship in spectacular fashion. On that Sunday in Charlotte, the Northern Irishman set the course record with a 62, and he also knows how to go low around the Earth Course. Last season, he birdied the last five holes to triumph by two shots.“ Something like that would work,” he said when reminded of his heroics at Quail Hollow. “Or maybe something like this time last year: five birdies to finish, although a good 13 holes to start would be good, too.”

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CADDIE PULLING FOR RIGHT HORSE

A good jockey should know when to use and avoid going to the whip. Gareth Lord seems pretty adept at making the proper call. The caddie was on the bag when Sweden’s Robert Karlsson won the European Tour money title in 2008. Moreover, he served as a fill-in for Luke Donald during the PGA Tour season finale in 2011, when Donald won the US money list. This year? He is carrying for Henrik Stenson, the Race to Dubai leader.

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SEVERAL GOALS AHEAD FOR McDOWELL

Graeme McDowell may be playing for conceivably three prizes this week, with the DP World Tour Championship, the Race to Dubai and the European Player of the Year all up for grabs. But if all else fails, the Northern Irishman would settle for one simple bragging right. “Worst-case scenario, I need to try to catch [Ian] Poulter,” McDowell said after a third-round 68 left him four behind his notoriously noisy neighbour from the Lake Nona community in Orlando, Florida. “That’s the least thing I need to do tomorrow.” Or he will be hearing about it for the next few weeks.

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LUITEN MAKES IT COUNT

No question, Joost Luiten adhered to the letter of the law and did what was required to play this week, but his path to the Race to Dubai finale raised some eyebrows, to be sure. Players were required to play in two of the three preceding events to be eligible for the season finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates, and when Luiten injured his right shoulder, he knew it was going to be impossible to complete that task. So in the first tournament of the four-event Final Series, he hit his opening tee shot and withdrew, causing a minor controversy because it denied another player a spot in the field. After an injection and treatment, he has played the past two weeks in Turkey and Dubai. After a 65 yesterday, he is right in the mix, too, and tied for eighth. “At the end of the day, I had to do it and it has worked out well for this week,” he said.

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DONALD NOT DONE YET

For a player who opened the tournament with a 73, former world No 1 Luke Donald has mounted a nice rally. With birdies on his last four holes, the former Race to Dubai champion finished with a 67 and climbed into a tie for eighth, seven shots back. Donald has finished third the past two years at Jumeirah, so he knows the terrain well. “It is a long golf course, but there is a lot of strategy as well,” he said. “The greens are very undulating and the pins are tricky, so you really have to think your way around here. Yeah, it would be real nice if I could walk to the first [tee] and keep going.”

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THE YANKS ARE COMING

In actuality, the Dubai finale was one of two key tournaments being run by the European Tour this week. The tour’s Qualifying School finals were completed in Spain on Friday and a record four Americans secured cards for 2014. Because of the systemic changes to PGA Tour qualifying overseas and the success of Yanks abroad this year, the number of Americans who entered Q-School in Europe doubled from last season. “These young Americans are very, very welcome,” the European Tour commissioner George O’Grady said. “We’re an alternative place to play and there are plenty of good players to go around.”

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ROSE’S FINAL ROUND PHILOSOPHY

Justin Rose spent a few moments signing autographs for children situated along the fence near the first tee yesterday. A young boy from the Butch Harmon school in Dubai congratulated him on his US Open win this summer, words that Rose has grown used to hearing since then. Yet it prompted the Englishman to offer some insight into how he survived the cauldron of pressure on Sunday at Merion to claim his first major. “The thing is, I was willing to lose,” Rose said. “If it wasn’t going to happen for me that week, then it would hopefully be another.” Rose is tied for sixth in Dubai with Lee Westwood, six shots back.

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