Thursday 12 November 2015 12:32, UK
The European Tour's season-ending Final Series gets underway this week at the Turkish Airlines Open. Here's all you need to know about the finale to the 2015 Race to Dubai...
What is it?
The Final Series is the name given to the final four tournaments of the European Tour season. Starting at this week's Turkish Airlines Open, the series also includes the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, as well as the BMW Masters and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
What is at stake?
In short, money and silverware. Whoever tops the Race to Dubai standings at the end of the four events not only claims the Harry Vardon Trophy, but also earns himself a seven-year automatic membership on to the European Tour.
Who has been successful?
Rory McIlroy cruised to the top of the standings last season, following on from his victory two years earlier to become the first player to take the title on multiple occasions.
Lee Westwood claimed victory in the inaugural event in 2009, with Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald and Henrik Stenson also former winners in recent seasons.
Could McIlroy do it again?
The world No 3 is in a strong position to do just that, currently topping the standings by just over 270,000 from nearest challenger Danny Willett, but this year's Order of Merit is far less one-sided than things were 12 months ago.
Louis Oosthuizen and recent Hong Kong Open champion Justin Rose are both within half a million of McIlroy, while Shane Lowry and Branden Grace are still in contention less than a million points off the lead.
With enhanced prize money and points on offer over the final four events of the year, the chase for pole position on the Race to Dubai is far from over.
Who can feature?
With the exception of the DP World Tour Championship, where only the top 60 in the Race to Dubai rankings are eligible to take part, the other three events in the Final Series have the same entry requirements as any other European Tour event.
However, only those who have finished in the top 110 on the Race to Dubai and have secured their playing rights for next season can pick up any extra points during these four events.
How does the points system work?
For all of the regular season events, including last week's Hong Kong Open, each Euro of prize money earned by a player equalled one point on the Race to Dubai standings. This is different for the Final Series where each event has 8,000,000 points up for grabs, with those being divvied out based on where a player finishes in a tournament.
With the winner of each event getting 1,333,330 points, there's still plenty of time for players to make huge strides up or down the standings.
And what about prize money?
Majors, all four tournaments offer prize money higher than what is awarded in most regular-season events, although there's extra money up for grabs for those ending their campaign strongly.
Players finishing the season in the Race to Dubai's top 15 will share a $5million bonus pool, with a quarter of that going to the player topping the standings.
Not only that, but those who feature in at least three of the four Final Series events will be eligible for part of an additional bonus fund, which is an extra $1.35million. So all in all, plenty to play for in the coming weeks.
How can I follow the action?
Like every other event on the European Tour schedule, all four days of each of the four Final Series events will be live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
