There have been a whopping 12,732 birdies on the Earth course since the tournament began in 2009. Rory McIlroy leads the way with 253, with Lee Westwood in second place on 210 and Ian Poulter third with 192.
Jon Rahm boasts the most prize money won at the tournament, banking a tidy €7,048,100 in his four appearances. The Spaniard has three wins and one fourth place finish to his name.
Of the players to have played at least 20 rounds, Eddie Pepperell holds the unfortunate record of the worst Stroke Average with 71.952 from a total of 21 rounds – the Englishman’s odd number of rounds is due to retiring after the first round in 2018 due to injury. Rory McIlory tops the leaderboard for Stroke Average with an impressive 68.479 from 48 rounds.
The tournament has only been settled by a play-off on one occasion, with Robert Karlsson needing two extra holes to overcome Ian Poulter in 2010.
Since teaming up with No More Bottles UAE, the tournament has saved 123,014 500ml plastic bottles from being used by dispensing 61,507 litres of water into reusable bottles.
There have been 7,399 bogeys in the last 14 editions, with Martin Kaymer carding the most with 107. Ross Fisher added a blemish to his card on 100 occasions, while Rafa Cabrera Bello made bogey 98 times during his 12 starts on the Earth course. Kaymer also has the most double bogeys in tournament history with 15.
Rory McIlroy will be the outright leader in appearances at the season-ending event when he tees it up this month with 13 starts at the final Rolex Series tournament of the year. The Northern Irishman is currently tied on 12 outings with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer and Rafa Cabrera Bello.
Before the inaugural DP World Tour Championship in 2009, only three players had finished as European Number One having also won the final event of the season – Ronan Rafferty (1989), Colin Montgomerie (1993) and Justin Rose (2007). Since moving the final event to Dubai, it has happened on six occasions with Lee Westwood (2009), Rory McIlroy (2012), Henrik Stenson (2013), McIlroy (2015), Jon Rahm (2019) and Collin Morikawa (2021) winning both the DP World Tour Championship and Race to Dubai in the same season.
No player has more top five finishes without winning the tournament than Charl Schwartzel. The South African has finished inside the top five on four occasions – 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016. The leader of top fives in the event is Rory McIlroy with eight, followed by Matt Fitzpatrick with five – both players have won the tournament on two occasions.
