Monday 16 November 2015 07:38, UK
Danny Willett reflected on another "stale" performance as he missed the chance to replace Rory McIlroy at the top of the Race to Dubai standings.
Willett was agonisingly close to dethroning McIlroy ahead of the final event of the season in Dubai next week, and he needed to finish outright 28th or better at the BMW Masters in Shanghai.
The Sheffield pro was comfortably inside that mark with two holes to play at Lake Malaren, but he dropped his only shot of the round at the 17th and parred the last to complete an uneventful 70 and finish tied for 28th on seven under par.
McIlroy will now begin the season-ending DP World Tour Championship with a lead of only 1,613 points over Willett in the battle for the Race to Dubai title, but Willett is confident of keeping the pressure on the world No 3 at the Jumeriah Golf Estates.
"Last week was pretty stale and obviously I had a good last round, and this week's just been stale again," Willett said. "I putted pretty poorly for four days. I never really got anything going. I just struggled a bit. It's close though and I guess you can look at it as if I go there next week and I win, I win. It's one of those good situations to be in.
"I will try and take a few positives, even though I feel like it could have put a bit of space there this week but like I said, I really, really struggled on the greens."
McIlroy has held the top spot on the Race to Dubai since April 12, taking over from Willett after he had set the early pace with his victory in the lucrative Nedbank Golf Challenge along with a share of fourth in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and further top-15 finishes in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
While McIlroy was sidelined by his ankle injury in July, Willett closed the gap with a top six finish in The Open at St Andrews before claiming his second victory of 2015 in the Omega European Masters a week later.
McIlroy and Willett will start as favourites to be crowned European No 1, but Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace can all top the Race to Dubai with a victory, while Byeong Hun An also retains an outside chance after his tie for third in Shanghai.
Willett added: "I've got a day and a half off to regroup and chill out, and I know I'm going to have a chance next week. I know if I win, I win. If I beat Rory, with a few other permutations, I win, as well. There are a lot of positives to take.
"I'm a bit frustrated at the minute, but I'll just try and take all the positives I can and have a day off and get my head back on and get my thoughts together and keep working hard and hopefully a few will drop next week."
Meanwhile, in-form Rose is hoping he has timed his run perfectly after following up his victory in the UBS Hong Kong Open three weeks ago with a share of seventh place in the BMW Masters.
The 2013 US Open Champion, who was also joint runner-up in Dubai last year, is up to third place in The Race to Dubai, just 650,999 points behind McIlroy, with 1,333,330 on offer to the winner next week.
"Tied seventh is obviously a decent week and no one ahead of me on the Race to Dubai played better than me, so I caught up a bit of ground on Rory and Danny," said Rose. "It's going to be very tight going into Dubai. I think I'm going to have to win next week.
"I always knew I was going to have to win one of these two weeks, so hopefully I'm deferring and can finish it off on the grand stage in Dubai."
