Rory McIlroy will be hoping to kick-start 2025 with a bang by defending his title at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and aiming to make history by becoming the first-ever five-time winner of the event. With victories in 2009, 2015, 2023, and 2024, McIlroy is hoping to make it three straight wins, and there’s no doubt he’ll be hungry to add another Dallah Trophy to his collection.
But the Northern Irishman won’t have an easy ride. Two-time Major champion Jon Rahm will be making his debut at Emirates Golf Club, and he’s coming in with plenty of momentum. Rahm, who has already made a name for himself in Dubai with three wins at the DP World Tour Championship (2017, 2019, 2022) and a Race to Dubai title in 2019, is looking to add the Hero Dubai Desert Classic to his already impressive list of accomplishments, backed-up by winning the Individual Title race on the 2024 LIV Golf League.
Here’s the prize money breakdown for each golfer at the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic
While McIlroy is chasing history, Rahm will be aiming to steal the spotlight and assert himself as the top dog in Dubai. The two have been part of many thrilling battles in recent years, and with both in the spotlight for the 2025 edition of this prestigious Rolex Series event, it’s shaping up to be a rivalry worth watching.
The pair will be joined by a world-class field of contenders, including Akshay Bhatia, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Min Woo Lee, Robert MacIntyre, Thomas Pieters, Patrick Reed, Ryan Fox and Adam Scott, all vying for a share of the US$9 million prize pool.
Tyrrell Hatton joins three additional world top-30 players in Hero Dubai Desert Classic
As McIlroy seeks his third consecutive victory and Rahm aims to make a statement, the Hero Dubai Desert Classic is shaping up to be one of the most exciting chapters yet in this high-stakes rivalry.
In what is set to once again make more memorable moments at the Majlis course, we sat down with Simon Corkill, Executive Tournament Director of Hero Dubai Desert Classic, to discuss the biggest and grandest event in the Middle East, now in its 36th edition.
Simon Corkill. Image supplied
Simon, how big is it to have Rory confirmed for the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic?
It’s fantastic for us that Rory is going to play. We can’t take Rory for granted. He’s played a lot in the Middle East and played a lot in Dubai and a lot of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic’s, as you know he’s announced he’s going to reduce his schedule for 2025, so for us to get him to commit is fantastic.
He’s unbeatable pretty much around the Majlis course, which is great and that’s why he enjoys it. I think a lot of golfers will go back to golf courses that they enjoy and play well on. But he is the master of the Majlis. He certainly brings in the crowds, he’s Europe’s best player, he’s World Number Three, he’s golf’s box office hit. So we’re delighted that he’s committed to play.
With the announcement that Jon Rahm is making his maiden appearance in the event, what does that bring to the Hero Dubai Desert Classic?
Having a player of Jon Rahm’s calibre making his debut at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic is a tremendous boost for the tournament. Jon is not only one of the most exciting players in the world but also a two-time Major champion and former World Number One. He’s one of those handful of truly box-office players who adds star power to any event he tees it up in and we’re very fortunate that he’s expressed his desire to join what is shaping up to be an exceptional field at Emirates Golf Club this month. The duel between Rahm and Rory is one which will captivate golf fans around the world, and we can’t wait for the action to begin on January 16th.
The master of the Majlis is going for his sixth Dallah trophy. Getty Images
Let’s talk a bit about the Majlis. Has it got under any significant enhancements or tweaks in the last 12 months?
There are no real changes. There’s a couple of little tweaks to the second tee, just to make that hole a little bit longer. I think the rough has been grown in a bit on the second, but not a huge amount. The DP World Tour were out here back in September, Mikael Eriksson the Tournament Director and Graeme MacNiven the Deputy Director of Tour Agronomy, along with Matthew Perry at the Emirates Golf Club. They are all very happy with how it was coming through the summer. It’s obviously tough as we know in Dubai, to get the courses through the summer. But the Majlis came out very well and Mikael said to us to set up the course the same as last year because everyone was delighted with the setup. It was tough, but it was fair. And the great thing about when it’s in that condition is the cream rises to the top. So, we’re happy with the progress and, I’m sure it’ll be obviously be a great event and a great test for players.
It was a few years ago that they re-surfaced the greens. Was that the last major thing that the Majlis has had amended?
I want to say it was three years ago, and it was always going to be a process. I think last year was probably the first year that it was back to where it should be. It was obviously a big restoration to change all the greens, and probably needed doing. There was a lot of talk even before I came to Dubai that they had to be done. It was obviously a big thing for that to happen, but certainly now since the greens have bedded in, there doesn’t seem to be any problems with them.
Obviously executing an event of this scale takes a fair amount of planning. How soon does it all start for the upcoming year?
As soon as the final putt drops on the previous year. We basically have a simple mantra that we want to improve every experience and every touchpoint, and we certainly don’t sort of just put things away and go “right we’ll do the same thing again next year.” We analyse everything and want it to be better for everyone. The sponsors, the players, the caddies, the media, the volunteers, the spectators, it’s every touchpoint.
The hospitality stand on the 9th and 18th rival the best in the world. Getty Images
Am I right and thinking you’ve been involved in the tournament for five years now? How much have you seen it progress in that time?
It’s certainly evolved. I was very lucky to inherit a really, really great canvas. It’s the Majlis golf course, and the skyline is awesome. So, the whole team have done a fantastic job in lifting this event. Being a Rolex Series event really helps certainly with it being at the pinnacle on the DP World Tour.
The DP World Tour’s Rolex Series tournaments have certain standards and we have to adhere to those. So it’s very important for us to really push each element. We’ve certainly made big strides with the hospitality around the 9th and 18th green, and have really made that into a fantastic product and probably one of the best in the world.
Jon Rahm to make debut in DP World Tour’s longest-running Middle East event
We are a bit biased, but I think it really is. I’ve seen enough tournaments around the world to see where we stand in that pecking order. But we also really make sure that the event is for everyone. Our new tagline for this year is “More Than Legendary Golf.” We know we’re going to get really good golfers, so the golfer side of it will be excellent as it always has been at this event with the champions we’ve had. But we’re really pushing the areas off the golf course. So we will expand on our tournament town, really ramp up activities in there, especially for the children. We have really ramped up the food experience to make it like a food festival, and we’ll continue to do that.
So even if you don’t enjoy golf, you can come with friends and family and have a good day out and watch a bit of golf. But you will get engrossed in the golf because the venue is fantastic for watching golf. It’s one of the easiest golf courses in the world to watch golf. You can jump from hole to hole easily. There are galleries on every hole with roars ringing out from each part of the course, so we’re very lucky because we’ve got a great canvas and we hopefully have made it a little bit better each year.
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You were awarded your GEO Certification, not only as the first event in the Middle East but the first Rolex Series event to do so. That echoes with the sustainable approach that Dubai is driving.
We managed to get our certification in 2023, a year ahead of schedule, which was fantastic. And then we managed to retain it in 2024, which is not taken for granted. There’s some fairly strict criteria to make sure you get that. So we were very happy with that and now we’re looking to expand on what the initiatives are that we’ve already done, and now it’s to really emphasize these and really get into the nitty gritty of different sustainable initiatives.
We can’t change the world, but we’re going to try by showing an example, and try to make things to get people thinking a bit differently. We introduced the park and plant initiative a couple of years ago where all the proceeds went back into our sustainability initiatives, and we planted over 1700 mangroves out at the Jebel Ali nature sanctuary.
It’s these little things that we keep doing each year to make them better and better. We will continue to push that message, and as you said, it’s part of the Dubai strategy going forward.
The 2025 edition will be the 36th Hero Dubai Desert Classic. How proud are Dubai and the UAE of having this event on their roster?
1989 was the first one and you will have seen the pictures, but a lot of people haven’t seen the pictures. But it was a golf course in the middle of the desert. Sheikh Zayed Road was a single, two-lane road and it’s just amazing how it’s developed. We are extremely proud how the event still stands on the world circuit, with the champions we’ve had. It’s like a role of honour for a major with Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and more recently Viktor Hovland. So we’re very proud of it and we’ve got to keep striving to make it bigger and better.
One of the key initiatives that we hopefully have started the ball rolling on, is last year we introduced the Mental Fitness and Recovery Zone which really targeted the players, their entourage and their caddies in regards to making sure they were mentally fit and so they could perform better. We had a fantastic facility at the golf club with this Zen area for the players to go and get away from the hard-core pressure of playing golf and to relax.
We introduced that last year, and we’re going to really push it again this year. We have even seen other events are starting to implement this and I would like to see that these sort of zones are almost as common as practice balls for the pros on the range.
It’s something that is happening and it’s very important in the world of sports that we can deliver this. We are an elite event, and we need to provide these elite services for the players. As part of that, we are going to work very closely with The R&A this year on the Golf is Good campaign and really promote the health benefits of golf to the public. It’s fantastic to go and watch a golf event. You can go and get lots of steps in, you can get out in the fresh air and really enjoy it, plus January in Dubai is perfect as we know.
The two-time PGA Tour winner, Akshay Bhatia, will be making his debut. David Cannon / Getty Images
It’s another golf event in the UAE for the national players to shine. Joshua Grenville-Wood got a spot last year which was huge. How important is it for those kinds of opportunities?
It is. We get one national spot. We would like more, but because it’s a Rolex Series event there’s obviously massive competition for those places and are well sought after by all the pros that have earned the right to play in the event. But it was a great opportunity for Joshua Grenville-Wood.
In the past we’ve had Josh Hill play as an amateur and he has done exceptionally well. We hope that these opportunities are used as a springboard for their career.
One area that we also have pushed is that we have a couple of our amateur spots that we give to the PGA Tour University Number One ranked player, David Ford this year, and one of the highest-ranked amateur players in the world. That being said, we’ve been lucky enough to have some really key players play in the past since we introduced this. Sam Bennett played and he was the US Amateur champion, then last year Ludvig Åberg took up a spot and went on to play the Ryder Cup in the same year! These guys are going to be world stars. Amateur golf is very important to us and the fact the Emirates Golf Club has won the rights to host the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship is fantastic which will be just before the 2026 Hero Dubai Desert Classic, a perfect lead in.
Main image: Getty Images
