Never in history has it been more difficult to play the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the first major event of the year 2025 on the DP World Tour calendar. The tournament will take place from January 16 to 19 at the Emirates Golf Club. The initial list of participants, pending any withdrawals that may occur, has already been made official, and for now, no player has entered through the Money List category or the Challenge Tour. All those who retained their card last year have entered… and thankfully.
As it stands, Ángel Ayora, who was fifth last year in the Challenge Tour ranking, although practically third since Rasmus Neergaard Petersen obtained the category of those who retained their card on the DP World Tour and John Parry has moved to the winners’ category after his victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship, has been left out of the tournament. This is a significant setback, as based on what had happened in previous years in this tournament, there was a belief that he would eventually get in. He is currently the eleventh reserve, so it seems impossible for so many players to drop out in the next two weeks.
What has happened in 2025 is that practically none of the top players on the European circuit want to miss this event. It’s a Ryder Cup year, and it shows. The Dubai Desert Classic offers a lot of points. Thus, we will have in the emirate Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, the Hojgaard brothers, Robert MacIntyre, or Tommy Fleetwood, regular players on the PGA Tour. We will also have a strong contingent of LIV Golf players, also interested in scoring for the Ryder Cup or the world ranking: Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed, Adrian Meronk, or Thomas Pieters, among others.
It is so difficult to enter the tournament this year that even the players from the Money List category are currently out, ahead of the Challenge Tour. In this regard, the Spanish player affected at this time is Rafa Cabrera Bello, who appears as the second reserve. The Canary Islander does have real chances of entering, but he will have to be on the lookout for any withdrawals that may occur in the coming hours.
The DP World Tour, however, has missed a good opportunity to invite one of the most promising players currently on its circuit. It cannot be said that Ángel Ayora deserves an invitation because, as you know, invitations are discretionary, so the notion of deserving is very relative, but certainly, he is a profile that meets all the conditions to have been granted one for this tournament.
Beyond his spectacular youth and progression, the Andalusian golfer has been left out of the tournament by just 14 points. He was on the verge of entering through the category of the best available player from the Opening Swing, the first mini-tour of the Tour season, where Ayora secured two top 10s and came very close to winning at Leopard Creek. He finished just behind Ryan Van Velzen. A close call. Moreover, Ayora has not received any direct invitation from the DP World Tour to date. The tournaments he has played in the last two years have been through promoters or sponsors and not through the circuit itself.
The three invitations given this year, two more than last year, have been for Jimmy Walker, a former PGA Championship winner, Ashun Wu, and Veer Ahlawat. Obviously, the invitation to Ahlawat is directly from Hero, the main sponsor, Indian like him, while the one for the Chinese Wu has less explanation.
In any case, Ayora plans to travel to Dubai next week to train and adjust some things with the new equipment from TaylorMade, so it should not be ruled out that he will be seen at the tournament.
At the moment, we have nine Spaniards on the participant list for the Desert Classic. In addition to the aforementioned Jon Rahm, there are Ángel Hidalgo, Nacho Elvira, Pablo Larrazábal, Jorge Campillo, Alejandro del Rey, Alfredo García Heredia, Iván Cantero, and Manu Elvira, awaiting the possible entry of Cabrera Bello.
