ANOTHER season is over for the DP World Tour, another year of flux for main tour golf.

The urge to deliver the best-playing-the-best-att-the-time that was first expressed by LIV Golf has been taken up with giddy haste by the PGA Tour and it feels a little as if elite golfers no longer just literally live in gated communities – they also compete in metaphorical ones.

World Series Cricket did something similar in the 1970s and it has a lot in common with golf’s current situation. The catalyst was an Australian disruptor (then Kerry Packer, now Greg Norman), money and ulterior motives were at the heart of the battle, and the players in both sports considered themselves under-rewarded (the old cricketers had a point, modern golfers less so).

WSC had an ultimately positive impact on cricket but many lessons from it have been forgotten. Key among those is that the concept involved three squads of the best cricketers in the world and they played each other over, and over, and over, and over again. Eventually, they were not only bored, they were also knackered. There was no variety, stories were limited, player interest waned, and the schedule never let them off the hook.

Just as cricket is better for the odd military medium-pace bowler and nuggetty middle-order batter, so golf is improved by an Everyman lifting a few trophies.

The sport is, for example, better for the renaissance of Matteo Manassero (a four-time winner by the age of 20, ranked outside the world’s top 1,800 a few years later, a winner again this season). It is better for the fact that last week’s winner Paul Waring has spent the last few Opens commentating for BBC Radio and will now have clubs in his hands next July at Royal Portrush rather than a microphone. It’s better for Angel Hidalgo completing a thrilling breakthrough with a flair that evokes Seve Ballesteros and showmanship that recalls Miguel Angel Jimenez.

It’s better for having a pathway for promising youngsters like Frederic Lacroix, Jesper Svensson and Niklas Norgaard Moller. For allowing Dylan Frittelli to revive his career. For giving Jordan Gumberg the chance to win from of nowhere. And for Linn Grant overcoming an 11-shot pre-final round deficit to win a second Scandinavian Mixed title (although that result was maybe not better for poor Sebastian Soderberg whose meltdown allowed it to happen).

As cosy as this celebration of the ordinary is, it is perhaps badly timed because this week only 50 golfers tee it up. Who among them will thrive? Let’s take a look.

First Round Leader Each Way – Rory McIlroy at 10/1

The Northern Irishman has an exceptional record in this tournament and in Dubai in general. He has nine top six finishes (including two wins) on the hosting Earth Course from just 13 starts. He also has four wins at Emirates GC in the Dubai Desert Classic. That sustained quality explains his short price this week, but he also has a very fine record in the first round and we can get a bigger price for that.

On the Earth Course he has one solo lead, one co-lead and another five top six positions on the first round leaderboard. Add in the Emirates GC and Dubai Creek GC and his Thursday record in Dubai reads: 28 starts, 17 top six positions, two of them co-leads and five outright advantages.

Each Way Outright – Joaquin Niemann at 12/1

In the weeks after last year’s DP World Tour Championship Chile’s Joaquin Niemann was an integral part of a LIV Golf raid on the DP World Tour with his victory in the Australian Open, one of five consecutive victories for the rebels. It was also the beginning of a magical run for the 26-year-old that saw him win three times either side of New Year. His consistency and quality since then has allowed him to finish top 10 in 17 of his last 25 starts around the world.

In that run he has maintained his ongoing difficulties with transferring his best golf to the major championship challenges but there’s good reason, beyond that very good form, to believe that he can contend this week. In the Middle East? He has two top fives at Al Mouj in Oman, was fourth in the Dubai Desert Classic this year, and has four top 10s at Royal Greens in Saudi Arabia including victory in LIV Jeddah.

This week’s course is also a Greg Norman design, as is Al Mouj in Oman and that’s not the only time he’s thrived on the Shark’s tests. He was sixth at TPC San Antonio in the 2018 Texas Open, third at The Grove in this summer’s LIV Nashville and a first round 59 fuelled his win at El Camaleon in February’s LIV Mayakoba (he’s also been fifth and T11th there).