Preview
Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship 2026: the Race to Dubai's top three go out last
Eugenio Chacarra, Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy play together at Yas Links, where a win is worth 1,500 Race to Dubai points. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton start the week outside the top 50 who go on to Dubai.
“I dream of playing with the best players in the world,” Eugenio Chacarra said before the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship. On Thursday at 07:50 GMT he tees off at Yas Links with Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy, the two players closest to him in the Race to Dubai, in the last group of the day. For the first time the opening Play-Off event sends its groups off in reverse ranking order, so the leaders go last and the lowest-ranked player in the field, Sam Bairstow, hits the first shot at 03:19 GMT.
Chacarra leads Reed by 669.27 points, McIlroy by 999.03 and Casey Jarvis by 1,287.81. The winner in Abu Dhabi gets 1,500 points and the runner-up 1,000, and a win in next week’s finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates is worth 2,000. On those gaps, a win in Abu Dhabi would put each of the chasers ahead of Chacarra unless he earns more than the figure below:
| If this player wins in Abu Dhabi | He passes Chacarra unless Chacarra earns more than |
|---|---|
| Patrick Reed | 830.73 points |
| Rory McIlroy | 500.97 points |
| Casey Jarvis | 212.19 points |
Reed needs at least a share of second to have any chance of going into Dubai on top, according to Sky Sports. He led the rankings for most of the season after wins in Dubai and Qatar, before Chacarra won in Delhi last month for his third title of the year. Chacarra has made 29 starts this season and McIlroy 11, according to The Irish Times.
McIlroy has won the Race to Dubai in each of the past four years; a fifth in a row would be his eighth, equalling Colin Montgomerie’s record. “Obviously I’d love to win. I need a big week to give myself a real chance going into Dubai next week, as well,” McIlroy said. He has never won this event. “I’ve finished runner-up here four times,” he said when he confirmed his entry in October.
Thursday at Yas Links: selected groups in GMT
Everyone starts on the 1st tee. Abu Dhabi is four hours ahead of GMT.
| GMT | Local | Players |
|---|---|---|
| 03:19 | 07:19 | Sam Bairstow, Jordan Gumberg |
| 04:50 | 08:50 | Tyrrell Hatton, Joost Luiten, Victor Perez |
| 05:01 | 09:01 | Matt Wallace, Jon Rahm, Ewen Ferguson |
| 05:12 | 09:12 | Adam Scott, Manuel Elvira, Matthew Jordan |
| 06:28 | 10:28 | Yuto Katsuragawa, Martin Couvra, Tommy Fleetwood |
| 07:28 | 11:28 | Andy Sullivan, Jacob Skov Olesen, Jayden Schaper |
| 07:39 | 11:39 | Daniel Hillier, Aaron Rai, Casey Jarvis |
| 07:50 | 11:50 | Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Eugenio Chacarra |
Sky Sports Golf is live from 07:00 GMT on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from 06:30 on Sunday. Golf Channel has the same coverage in the US. When coverage starts on Thursday, the first group will be more than three and a half hours into its round and the leaders will be 50 minutes from their tee time. Round reports go up on the tournament hub by breakfast time in the UK, Friday to Monday.
Rai defends at Yas Links
Last year Aaron Rai and Tommy Fleetwood both finished on 263, 25 under par, the tournament’s 72-hole record at Yas Links, and Rai won the playoff. He has since won the PGA Championship and is fifth in the Race to Dubai. Fleetwood plays with Yuto Katsuragawa and Martin Couvra, the winner and joint runner-up at the Genesis Championship in Korea last month.
Kyle Phillips’s course opened in 2010 and is a par 72 measuring 7,468 yards, with eight holes along the Arabian Gulf and a 646-yard par 5 to finish, according to the Racing Post. The forecast is calm and sunny, with highs of 35C. The purse is US$9 million and the winner takes US$1.53 million.
Eleven of the 70 qualifiers are not playing, among them Ryan Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry and Robert MacIntyre (the full list and their reasons). Play will stop with a long air-horn blast if the UAE authorities send a public emergency alert, according to instructions posted at the venue.
Rahm and Hatton start outside the top 50
Sunday’s rankings decide the 50 players who tee up at Jumeirah Golf Estates for the season’s last event, on 12–15 November. Jon Rahm starts the week 51st and Tyrrell Hatton 55th, according to Golf Channel. This is Rahm’s first tournament since leaving LIV Golf. He has won the Dubai event three times, in 2017, 2019 and 2022. He missed the Open de España to be at home for the birth of his fourth child. Hatton played in Madrid and missed the cut. Hatton tees off at 04:50 GMT with Victor Perez, who has won at Yas Links, and Rahm at 05:01.
Sources
- DP World Tour: Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship tee times – Race to Dubai leaders head out together
- Golf Monthly: Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship tee times 2026
- Sky Sports: Can Eugenio Chacarra hold off Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy?
- The Irish Times: Rory McIlroy embracing role of hunter with Race to Dubai title in sight
- Off Day Chatter via Yahoo Sports: Chacarra aims to hold off “idol” McIlroy
- Golf Monthly: Race to Dubai rankings and Play-Off points
- Golf Monthly: Rory McIlroy confirmed for Abu Dhabi
- Golf Channel via Yahoo Sports: 2026 Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship – how to watch, what’s at stake
- Racing Post: Yas Links course guide
- Arab News: Rahm to make Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship debut at Yas Links
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