2025 Race to Dubai - The story so far........

23 events down, 19 to go and it's still all to play for on the 2025 Race to Dubai.

From David Micheluzzi hitting the first shot at the BMW Australian PGA Championship to JJ Spaun lifting the trophy at last week's U.S. Open, the season so far has brought us plenty of thrills and spills.

Via five continents, four Global Swings, three Major Championships, a Rolex Series event and 19 regular DP World Tour outings, we have seen 23 different winners, with 13 lifting a DP World Tour trophy for the first time.

Here, we take a look at some of the highlights from the season so far.

Grand Slam glory for Rory

A lifetime in the making, nearly 11 years in the waiting - at the Masters Tournament Rory McIlroy joined the golfing immortals by completing the career Grand Slam. The World Number Two arrived at Augusta National as the favourite having already won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and THE PLAYERS Championship and at the 11th time of asking joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in golf's most exclusive club. A play-off victory over Justin Rose saw him slip on the Green Jacket after sinking to his knees and letting out a roar on the 18th green in scenes that will be forever etched in golfing folklore. “It feels incredible,” said McIlroy. “This is my 17th time here and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time. I think the last ten times, coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that – I sort of wonder what we're going to talk about going into next year's Masters! I'm absolutely honoured and thrilled and just so proud to be able to call myself the Masters champion."

Swing Kings

There may be two events to go in the European Swing but we have already crowned three Swing winners with each of them sealing a place in all events in Phase Two of the season - the Back 9 - and a $US200,000 bonus.

The Opening Swing title went to John Parry as the Englishman enjoys a stunning career renaissance despite being just 38. A winner in 2010 at the Vivendi Cup, he had to wait over 13 years for a next European Tour group win at the Delhi Challenge on the HotelPlanner Tour and he rattled off another two in quick succession to earn his place on the DP World Tour. He started the 2025 season with a top ten at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and while he followed that with a missed cut, a runner-up finish at the Alfred Dunhill Championship was his best DP World Tour result since his victory in France. The following week he went one better, lifting the trophy at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open to win the Swing and truly cement his place back on Tour.

The International Swing started at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and Laurie Canter's third-place finish set him on course for a domination of the second Global Swing. He sat out the follwing week but then won the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship for his second DP World Tour win. A tie for 35th in Qatar kept his points tally ticking over and when he lost out in a play-off at the Investec South African Open Championship, he had sealed the Swing title with an event to spare. That form not only saw him win the Swing but also enter the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking and earn a debut at the Masters Tournament.

Keita Nakajima finished second on the Asian Swing last season but he went one better in 2025 thanks to a fast start. The Japanese finished second at the Singaore Classic and then repeated the feat in his title defence at the Hero Indian Open. A missed cut at the Volvo China Open meant it was all to play for heading to the Hainan Classic but a tie for 11th proved enough to hand Nakajima Swing glory. His place in the top three also saw him head to the US PGA Championship along with Hero Indian Open champion Eugenio Chacarra and Hainan Classic winner Marco Penge.

Do you remember the first time?

The DP World Tour has produced a host of the game's biggest stars since its inception in 1972 and the class of 2025 may well have a superstar of its own among it. Of the 23 winners so far this season, 13 of them have been victorious for the first time, with Elvis Smylie and Ryggs Johnston setting the ball rolling at the first two events of the season in Australia. Alejandro del Rey was then the winner in Ras Al Khaimah before we had back-to-back first-timers in Africa with Jacques Kruyswijk and Dylan Naidoo. Richard Mansell then claimed a long-awaited triumph at the Porsche Singapore Classic before Chacarra won the Hero Indian Open the following week in just his ninth start. Penge rounded out the Asian Swing with victory at the Hainan Classic and Martin Couvra kicked off the European Swing with a win in Turkey before we had a hat-trick of first-time wins with Kristoffer Reitan, Nicolai von Dellingshausen and Connor Syme following him into the winner's circle. And at the weekend's U.S. Open, Spaun became our first first-time Major winner of the campaign. In 2023, we had a record 19 first-time winners, could that record be broken this year?

First-time winners

Big birds aplenty

Birdies are common, eagles are seen a fair bit end even eagles from holes-in-one often total 20 a season - but the albatross is a very rare bird indeed. In the past five seasons there had only been 14 on the DP World Tour but this season we have seen four already. CJ du Plessis took full advantage of leaving himself just a nine iron in on the last at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritus Open before Keita Nakajima lit up the Rolex Series from 236 yards with a hybrid on the 18th at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Niklas Lemke holed an eight iron from 183 yards on the third at the KLM Open and less than a week later Patrick Reed made just the fourth albatross in U.S. Open history with a three wood from 286 yards at the fourth at Oakmont. Could more be winging their way to us?

The Race is on

Amid all this, there is the main business of the battle to win the Harry Vardon Trophy and with no multiple winners so far this season, the race is still wide open. With his victory at Augusta, a top five in Dubai and two made cuts at Majors, McIlroy is the man on top and with a host of confirmed chances to win points across the Rolex Series and Back 9 to come, he is the favourite to make it four in a row. Tyrrell Hatton is next thanks to his win in Dubai and some strong Major showings before Swing winners Canter and Parry and China's Li Haotong round out the top five. European Swing leader Reitan is then sixth, with Robert MacIntyre, Daniel Hillier and Couvra all within 1,000 points of the leader.

To view the full Race to Dubai Rankings, click here.