Tuesday 15 November 2016 12:20, UK
The European Tour season reaches its climax at this week's DP World Tour Championship, where four players have the chance of ending the season top of the Race to Dubai standings.
Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett, Alex Noren and Rory McIlroy all head to Dubai with a chance of ending 2016 as Europe's No 1, with a number of possible permutations set to determine who will take the honours.
Open Champion Stenson extended his advantage over the chasing pack to 299,675 points with an eighth-place finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, a fortnight on from claiming a share of second at the WGC-HSBC and moving top of the standings.
Willett topped the Order of Merit for a large chunk of the season after winning the Masters in April, with a strong finish at Sun City last week keeping his hopes alive going in to the final event of the season.
A fourth win of the campaign saw Alex Noren move inside the world's top 10 and up in to third in the season-long standings, lifting him within 633,436 points of his Swedish counterpart.
McIlroy hasn't featured in either of the first two Final Series events and needs to retain his Dubai crown to have any chance of winning the Race to Dubai for a fourth time.
Even if McIlroy does claim a fourth worldwide title of 2016 this week, the Northern Irishman would still need Stenson to miss out on the top 45, Willett to finish outside of the top five and Noren end up runner-up or better this week.
A second trophy in as many weeks from Noren would leave Stenson needing to end runner-up to stay top of the standings. Noren can still top the standings with a runner-up finish, but only if Stenson ends the week ninth or worse and Willett doesn't claim a top-two.
Willett will win the Race to Dubai regardless of other results if he takes the DP World Tour Championship title, while a runner-up finish would be enough should Noren not claim victory and Stenson miss out a top two.
Here's a look at the other ways the Race to Dubai can be won and lost this week…
• For Noren to win, he needs a minimum top-two finish. If he wins in Dubai, then Stenson can still win the Race to Dubai by finishing second.
• If Noren finishes second, to win the Race to Dubai he needs Stenson to finish outside of the top eight and Willett outside of the top two.
• If Willett finishes fourth, Stenson needs to finish 30th or better to stay ahead of him.
• If Willett finishes third, Stenson needs to end ninth or higher to remain ahead of him in the race.
• If Willett finishes second, he wins the Race to Dubai if Stenson finishes outside the top two and Noren does not win.
• If Willett wins the DP World Tour Championship, he also claims the Race to Dubai title
• Stenson wins the Race to Dubai if none of the above scenarios take place
Who will win the Race to Dubai? Watch the DP World Tour Championship from November 17-20 live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf
