The DP World Tour officially returns from its early-season break this week, and it is the Hero Dubai Desert Classic which has the honor of kickstarting the International Swing section of the season’s Global Swing phase.
The first of five Rolex Series tournaments in 2025, the Dubai Desert Classic has generated a significant number of high-profile winners since being introduced in 1989, from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to Seve Ballesteros and Bryson DeChambeau.
McIlroy has lifted the trophy four times already and is planning on making it five this year via a third successive title. If he manages it, the Northern Irishman will take the top prize of a little over $1.5m from an overall purse of $9m.
But, in order to reign supreme once more, the World No.3 will have to fight off a stacked field at Emirates Golf Club which includes the likes of Akshay Bhatia, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, and Tyrrell Hatton.
The DP World Tour's 2025 opener contains the second-largest prize fund of the year, although it will be matched by three other Rolex Series tournaments once they come around - the Genesis Scottish Open, the BMW PGA Championship, and the Abu Dhabi Championship - before ultimately being surpassed by the $10m DP World Tour Championship in November.
This week also marks a rare occasion where the DP World Tour's event offers a larger prize purse than its PGA Tour rival, with $8.5m available at The American Express in California.
As well as the eye-catching purse, there are also 8,000 Race To Dubai points and the small matter of 2,000 Ryder Cup points available. Below is the prize money payout for the 2025 Dubai Desert Classic.
As well as some of the biggest names on the DP World Tour - such as Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, and Tommy Fleetwood - there are a number of PGA Tour regulars and LIV Golf League players involved at the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic, too.
Akshay Bhatia is making a rare appearance on the European circuit alongside his US-based rival and one of Team Europe's Ryder Cup heroes, Viktor Hovland.
LIV golfers Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton have featured in DP World Tour events a little more often in recent months and will continue to do so as they hunt a spot on Luke Donald's roster at Bethpage Black in September.
Meanwhile, Patrick Reed, Adrian Meronk, and Thomas Pieters - who left Bubba Watson's RangeGoats for Dustin Johnson's 4Aces over the winter - add to the notable list of LIV players involved in Dubai this week.
Players are competing for a purse of $9m at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the DP World Tour’s first Rolex Series event of the year. That’s an identical sum to the 2023 and 2024 tournaments. Of that, the winner will earn $1.53m with the runner-up banking $990,000.
The Hero Dubai Desert classic is one of the highest-profile tournaments on the DP World Tour schedule, so its no surprise there is a strong field. Four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy is the headliner, while there is also an appearance from Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Akshay Bhatia, Viktor Hovland, and Patrick Reed.
2025-01-13T16:04:18Z