The course
The course rewards driving distance and play off the tee, both rated CRITICAL, and then greens in regulation and putting on greens hit in regulation, both rated HIGH. It separates players least on scrambling. Jumeirah has historically separated players on skill more than is typical for this tour, while over its recent stagings it scores close to the tour average for difficulty.
| Key metric | Priority | Its leader's record |
|---|---|---|
| Driving distance | CRITICAL | 7 top 10s, 2 wins in 10 stagings |
| Off the tee | CRITICAL | 4 top 10s in 9 stagings |
| Greens in regulation | HIGH | 7 top 10s, 2 wins in 10 stagings |
| Putts per GIR | HIGH | 5 top 10s, 2 wins in 10 stagings |
| Around the green | MEDIUM | 2 top 10s in 9 stagings |
Key metrics: what Course Fit says this course rewards beyond the tour norm, largest weight first. Priority: the weight against every venue's (CRITICAL for the top tenth). Its leader's record: how the player who led the field for the metric at each staging went on to finish.
History
The five recent winning scores run from 21 under par to 15 under par. The strongest record among the key metrics belongs to the field's leader for driving distance, who finished in the top 10 in seven of 10 stagings and won two times.
| Year | Champion | To par |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Matt Fitzpatrick | -18 |
| 2024 | Rory Mcilroy | -15 |
| 2023 | Nicolai Hojgaard | -21 |
| 2022 | Jon Rahm | -20 |
| 2021 | Collin Morikawa | -17 |
Last year
Matt Fitzpatrick is not in this week's field. He won in a playoff in 2025 at 18 under par, the third of his wins at the event. He matched the profile on driving distance (match) and was a perfect match on greens in regulation, but only neutral on play off the tee, a CRITICAL metric, and on putting on greens hit in regulation.
| Key metric | Champion's rank | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Driving distance | 12 | match |
| Off the tee | 23 | neutral |
| Greens in regulation | 3 | perfect match |
| Putts per GIR | 22 | neutral |
| Around the green | 5 | perfect match |
Verdict: perfect match (top 5), match (top quarter), neutral (top half), anomaly (bottom half), as in the review.
Course Fit: this week's field
Course Fit ranks this week's field by how closely each player's game over the last 12 months matches what Jumeirah rewards beyond the tour norm, above all driving distance, play off the tee and greens in regulation. These are the five who fit best, with each one's rank in this week's field for those skills over the same 12 months. All 50 players have played enough on the DP World Tour to be ranked. Course Fit leaves out form, class and the draw: it describes fit, not a forecast.
| Fit | Player | Driving distance | Off the tee | Greens in regulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rory Mcilroy | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| 2 | Jon Rahm | 3 | 13 | 2 |
| 3 | David Puig | 4 | 11 | 19 |
| 4 | Victor Perez | 20 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | Kristoffer Reitan | 6 | 14 | 35 |
Fit: his Course Fit rank in this week's field, as on the Event Profile page. Each other column is his rank in this week's field for that skill over the last 12 months, as the CC: Stats and CC: SG tables rank it.