{"id":903939,"date":"2026-11-03T03:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/903939\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T03:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:10:14","slug":"dp-world-tours-fortnight-in-u-a-e-begins-in-abu-dhabi-11-of-top-70-not-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/903939\/","title":{"rendered":"DP World Tour’s fortnight in U.A.E. begins in Abu Dhabi; 11 of top 70 not playing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the DP World Tour<\/a> is going ahead with back-to-back tournaments in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

The DPWT\u2019s Race to Dubai fortnight begins with this week\u2019s Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi and will culminate with next week\u2019s DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.<\/p>\n

The 70-player field in Abu Dhabi is comprised of the top players in the season-long Race to Dubai rankings, including No. 1 Eugenio Chacarra<\/a>, No. 2 Patrick Reed and No. 3 Rory McIlroy. However, 11 eligible players have chosen to skip the event, most notably reigning Open champion Ryan Fox and Matt Fitzpatrick.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, only four eligible players skipped \u2013 and none in the top 10.<\/p>\n

Also not playing are Shane Lowry, Alex Fitzpatrick, Min Woo Lee, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Ludvig Aberg, Robert MacIntyre, Si Woo Kim, Justin Rose and Ryan Gerard. The latter of whom is the pre-tournament favorite at the PGA Tour\u2019s WWT Championship in Cabo San Lucas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

While not every absence is indeed due to travel concerns, Fox and Fitzpatrick have both indicated their reasons for not playing are related to unrest in the region as the war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing completely honest as things stand right now, I would say I\u2019m not that comfortable,\u201d Fitzpatrick said last month while adding, \u201cI feel like it\u2019s been very vague the whole time and they (DP World Tour) have not necessarily kind of had open communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"BMW<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

With a newborn baby at home, Matt Fitzpatrick told reporters at Wentworth on Wednesday that he was not comfortable traveling to Abu Dhabi and Dubai later this year for the DP World Tour playoffs.<\/p>\n

Fox said, \u201cIf I feel like it\u2019s not the right decision, I may not go.\u201d<\/p>\n

In mid-October, following Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the Asian Tour postponed its PIF Saudi International, originally scheduled for Nov. 18-21. However, the HotelPlanner Tour successfully held an event in Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The U.S. recently kept its travel advisory to the U.A.E. at Level 3<\/a> (reconsider travel), noting, \u201cIranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions. The hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area.\u201d There are four levels, with Level 4 stating \u201cdo not travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.K. no longer has a travel advisory to U.A.E., though it does provide guidance that includes this statement on regional tensions, \u201cThe context in the Middle East remains deeply unpredictable and the risk of sudden escalation is high. Since conflict began in early 2026, Iran has stated its intention to target locations associated with the U.S. and Israel, including, but not limited to, organizations, businesses, facilities, and institutions. There have been strikes and retaliatory attacks by Iran and others across the region against civilian and U.S. military infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the competitors at Yas Links this week, they were greeted with a bulletin titled, \u201cMobile phone alerts and emergency procedures.\u201d<\/a> That notice read:<\/p>\n

If the U.A.E. authorities issue a mobile phone alert to the public at any point during the week whilst on site, play will be suspended immediately, signaled by a long blast of the air horns, as per the procedure for a dangerous situation.<\/p>\n

Players and caddies should evacuate the course as per the evacuation plans and proceed to the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

Tour staff will provide updates and announcements in the clubhouse, with further information shared via the Player Portal.<\/p>\n

If an alert occurs away from the golf course, follow the relevant instructions and guidance issued by the authorities in that alert.<\/p>\n

McIlroy was asked after his opening round at Wentworth in September<\/a> if he had any reservations in competing, to which he responded, \u201cIf the local governments feel like it\u2019s safe to put on these events, they are not going to put their citizens or people visiting in harm\u2019s way. I love the Middle East. I have a lot of friends there and I\u2019m looking forward to going back for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/p>\n

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The Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship is underway at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, UAE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the DP World Tour is going ahead with back-to-back tournaments in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-903939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}