McDowell has golf’s Race to Dubai momentum, says Poulter

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

DUBAI (Reuters) - In-form Graeme McDowell is in a better position going into this week’s Race to Dubai final event than money-leading Martin Kaymer, says New Hong Kong Open champion Ian Poulter.

“There are a few permutations for both Martin and Graeme this week, but for Graeme, if he wins, he wins the Race to Dubai title,” Poulter told Reuters.

“Martin’s leading but then Graeme’s in great form, as we have seen from him these past couple of weeks, and that sort of form is easy to continue.

“He won in Valderrama and was third in Singapore and now fifth behind me in Hong Kong, so you can see, Graeme’s on a good roll.”

Kaymer, instead took last week off after finishing tied 10th in his last event, the Singapore Open, while he was well down in 21st the week before in the Andalucian Masters won by McDowell.

Briton Poulter moved to No. 11 on the world rankings after his one-stroke victory in Hong Kong Sunday.

It was the Englishman’s 12th pro career victory and his second this season after capturing the WGC-Accenture Match-Play Championship earlier this year.

Poulter and McDowell, along with joint Hong Kong Open runners-up Matteo Manassero of Italy and England’s Simon Dyson, arrived in Dubai at 0530 local time Monday after a direct flight from Hong Kong. McDowell had boarded the flight ahead of this week’s season-ending $7.5m Dubai World Championship having cut Kaymer’s lead by Euro 76,689 in finishing fifth in Hong Kong.

It means the reigning U.S. Open champion is now Euro 290,910 behind the U.S. PGA winning Kaymer.