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Tiger Woods helped team USA win the Presidents Cup. Andrew Brownbill/AP/Press Association Images
Opinion

In the swing: one giant leap for Luiten as Race to Dubai finale approaches

There was plenty to discuss this week for our resident golf columnist, with the Iskandar Johor Open, Dunlop Phoenix tournament and Presidents Cup all taking place.

There really was a feast of golf this weekend.

Padraig Harrington tied for third at the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia and Shane Lowry also tied for third at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament Japan.

There was even Irish interest in the other event of the weekend, co-hosted by the European and Sunshine Tours, the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in South Africa, where Paul Cutler played but missed the cut.

All that before we even mention the Presidents Cup, which was won by team USA at Royal Melbourne.

With just two weeks remaining before the finale of the Race to Dubai, Joost Luiten, winner of the Iskandar Johor Open, has taken a giant stride towards the top 15 on the money list. With only the top 15 qualifying for the final event, The Dubai World Championship, and a €7.5m prize pool on offer, a place in that top 15 could prove to be a very lucrative venture.

Luiten moves into 18th place with his win, but will have some really hot competition for those last few places. Some high-profile players currently around the bubble are Alvaro Quiros (19th), Francesco Molinari (23rd) and Ian Poulter (24th).

Those just inside the top 15 will be sweating it over the coming weeks as well. Graeme McDowell sits in 13th, less than €100,000 ahead of 16th place. Even Darren Clarke in 10th place and just under €500,000 ahead of the cut will have to keep an eye on those coming up behind him.

Those are quite large sums of money, but with the prize pools on offer over the coming weeks, those kind of gaps can be overcome easily with a top-ten finish or better.

It seems as though the grand finale of the Race to Dubai has been a little too long coming. The European Tour’s deciding tournament being held in December is something we’re not used to, but we’ve been lucky with the quality of golf and interesting storylines towards the latter end of the year.

Some people would have seen the final of the Fed-Ex Cup on the PGA Tour as a peak, with subsequent golf an afterthought, but that hasn’t been the case. Luke Donald’s battle with Webb Simpson to win money list in the America was great entertainment, some really big events like the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the WGC – HSBC Champions event in Shanghai have come and gone, Rory McIlroy won again, and this weekend past we had the Presidents Cup.

Understandably, there tends not to be huge interest in Europe for the Presidents Cup, but it’s just as intriguing and entertaining for many of the same reasons as is the Ryder Cup. The fact that there’s no money on the line is somewhat refreshing, because in many cases, we get to see players playing simply out of a desire to beat their competitor.

A good case in point from the latest renewal of the event came from Tiger Woods, surprisingly enough. Some of you may remember before the Ryder Cup at The Belfry in 2002 when Tiger was asked would he rather win a WGC event or a Ryder Cup. He opted for the WGC event and said he “could think of a million reasons why,” referring to the paycheck available at WGC events.

At the Presidents Cup, we saw Woods as animated as we’ve seen for a long time. Check him out at 1:15 in this video:

And then again at 20secs here:

Those are just two examples from a guy who is not known for his record in either Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. If you look through those videos in their entirety, you see plenty of other examples of players getting fired up and expressing their emotions on the course.

As fans of the sport, it’s nice to see that from players. It gives us a better sense that they really do love the game and love winning, that they aren’t just birdie-making robots that monotonously earn millions of dollars a year. The thing is, outside of the Majors, it’s almost exclusively the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup that brings that out of players.

As the Race to Dubai finale approaches and big money is on the line, maybe we can hope for a little more passion and exuberance from the top pros. We’ve had some great storylines to date, but more of that kind of animation would really be the icing on the cake.

Read: Solid results for Harrington and Lowry in Asia>

Read: Tiger back in the winner’s enclosure as US secure Presidents Cup>