Rory McIlroy is in contention to finally win in Abu Dhabi, and he believes a stacked leaderboard at Yas Links shows the blueprint for the DP World Tour.

It is hard to argue with Rory McIlroy’s assertion that the blueprint has just been set for the DP World Tour. A tantalising finish lined up here at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship is the first evidence of what the ‘Old World’ circuit stands to gain after the sorry decline of LIV Golf.

McIlroy will aim to hunt down returning LIV stars and Ryder Cup teammates Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton at the $9 million playoff event on Sunday and finally end his long wait to win in this region of the Middle East.

He’s finished second four times and third on occasions here in Abu Dhabi, but also has a fellow Masters champion in Adam Scott and another LIV returnee in David Puig for company on a stacked leaderboard as he attempts to end the unusual hoodoo and deliver a huge blow to his Race to Dubai rivals.

McIlroy’s five-under 67 on Saturday – littered with eight birdies and an ugly double bogey – leaves him two shots behind Rahm. On his first start since his LIV exit and an ignominious visit to Wentworth in September, Rahm leads Hatton and the unheralded Italian Francesca Laporta by one shot, with McIlroy two behind the Spaniard.

“It’s a great leaderboard,” McIlroy said. “I’m going to have to, you know, go out and shoot a low one, something in the mid to low 60s to get it done tomorrow.”

It will surely make for thrilling viewing and McIlroy believes the path has been cleared for the DP World Tour to capitalise with events such as these. Several former LIV players, including Rahm and Hatton, as well as the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, could use the European circuit as a landing ground next season.

“I’ve said it from whenever it was announced, the [PGA Tour’s revamped] Championship Series gives the DP World Tour five months to shine, September through to January,” McIlroy said.

“That’s where the DP World Tour can really showcase its best events and its best players. The top guys will be done with the PGA Tour season. Then you have the core membership that’ll be battling it out through the summer months and then trying to get themselves into these bigger tournaments at the end of the year. It is the blueprint for the DP World Tour, absolutely.”

A lingering question in the DP World Tour’s ongoing talks with the PGA Tour has been the number of cards made available from Europe to the US circuit’s Championship Series ahead of a radical overhaul in 2028. For the last three seasons, the top 10 players not already exempt have secured tickets to the PGA Tour. But the change in the PGA Tour’s model and the influx of LIV players converging on the tour has led to questions about how many cards players will be incentivised to fight for in Europe.

McIlroy, however, seems to have the answer.

“I thought five was a nice number,” he told TG. “I think it would probably be a little less than that. I’d say it’ll probably be four. If I know what I’m talking about, which I usually do! I think the PGA Tour were sort of on three. European Tour were on five. I think they’ll meet in the middle and I think it’ll be four.”

As McIlroy has stated previously, a transition from the DP World Tour to the Challenger Series would be regarded as a lateral move, but there is now huge competition for the four cards that will seemingly be opened up to the game’s most lucrative events. The DP World Tour has weathered some of the storm and a blockbuster few months are ahead.

Starting with this Sunday at Yas Links.