€500,000 prize puts McDowell back in contention for Race To Dubai

The European Tour’s Race to Dubai looks set to come down to a two horse race after Graeme McDowell notched his third win of the season in Spain on Sunday.

After his win in the Alfred Dunhill Links, Martin Kaymer moved more that €1m clear of McDowell and the Race to Dubai looked all but over.

But Kaymer suffered a double blow on Sunday, missing out on the chance to become the world number one and seeing his lead at the top of the Race to Dubai leaderboard cut in half.

McDowell is now 5/1 to win the Race to Dubai and after his showing in the Andalucia Valderrama Masters and the Ryder Cup, the Ulsterman is full of confidence as the European Tour heads east for the final four events in the calendar.

There is $23m up for grabs in prize money through those four tournaments, starting with the HSBC Champions event which offers $7m in prize money which commences on Thursday.

There are only five golfers in the Race to Dubai betting market and they all feature this week in Shanghai as they look to close the gap on Kaymer.

World number one Lee Westwood, Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel are priced at 40/1, 100/1 and 150/1 to win the Race to Dubai respectively.

But another win in the next three tournaments for US Open champion McDowell would mean he and Kaymer would go head-to-head in Dubai in search of the $1.5m bonus.

Kaymer just needs to better McDowell’s finishes in the next four tournaments to claim the prize, and considering his standard of golf recently, barring the one poor performance last week, McDowell still has a strong task to win the Race to Dubai.

McDowell is 25/1 to win the HSBC Champions event this week. See the full Race to Dubai betting odds here.