Rory McIlroy has been hunting his next big goal ever since the major championship season came to a close. It’s in his sights, but a former rival stands in his way.
“Once major season was over, that’s what I turned my attention to,” McIlroy said on The Locker Room, the DP World Tour’s preview show, ahead of this week’s DP World India Championship about chasing his record-tying eighth Race to Dubai title.
McIlroy has won four Race to Dubai titles in a row and has seven overall. An eighth would tie Colin Montgomerie’s record, a mark that McIlroy covets. McIlroy exited the major season and set his sights on Patrick Reed, who won in Dubai and Qatar earlier this year and has been atop the Race to Dubai standings ever since.
“Yeah, look, I’m motivated regardless of who it is,” McIlroy said of chasing Reed at Wentworth. “Obviously Patrick and I have had quite the battles over the years, whether it be Ryder Cup, final round in a major, Dubai Desert Classic a few years ago. He’s a great competitor, and he’s played great all year. I respect him for how he’s went about it, and coming through here, he’s put his head down and done the work, and it’s actually been really good to see.”
Reed, who left LIV Golf in January, has spent 2026 playing on the DP World Tour while serving a one-year PGA Tour suspension. By finishing in the top 10 of the Race to Dubai standings, which Reed is assured of doing, the 2018 Masters champion will secure his PGA Tour card for 2027. If he finishes ahead of all other non-PGA Tour members, he will earn a spot in the 2027 Signature Events.
All that is to say, a lot is on the line this week — and in the weeks to come — for Reed and McIlroy, whose once-frosty relationship is starting to thaw. But Reed isn’t the only obstacle McIlroy faces as he pursues another career milestone. Another threat has been lurking — one who has grabbed the DP World India Championship lead through two-and-a-half rounds of suspended play and looks to spoil the Reed-McIlroy duel that has been brewing for months.
Eugenio Chacarra, who, like Reed, joined LIV Golf in 2022, entered the week in India at No. 2 in the Race to Dubai standings after jumping McIlroy last week at the Spanish Open. Chacarra was once one of the world’s top amateurs and joined LIV Golf at the onset of the breakaway league. He played on LIV for three seasons before his contract wasn’t renewed following the 2024 campaign. He aired his grievances and then cobbled together a DP World Tour schedule with sponsor invites in 2025. He won the Hero Indian Open in 2025 but faded down the stretch of the DP World Tour season and finished outside the top 10, meaning his PGA Tour card would have to wait.
Chacarra entered the 2026 season focused on recovery and nutrition. He didn’t want to have his game drop off at the end of the season again and cost him a PGA Tour card. Chacarra won the KLM Open and the DS Automobiles 83° Open d’Italia. He added a T4 finish at the Omega European Masters, a T3 at the French Open and a T2 at the Spanish Open to jump McIlroy and close within 166 points of Reed.
While the focus early in the week at Delhi Golf Club was on McIlroy, Reed, and defending champion Tommy Fleetwood, it was Chacarra who opened with back-to-back 67s and was 4-under through 11 holes in his third round to grab the lead before play was called Saturday due to darkness. That put Chacarra at 14 under, two shots ahead of Joost Luiten and Angel Hidalgo. Reed opened with a 3-over 75 but bounced back with a 69 to make the cut on the number at even par. He played the first 13 holes of his third round in 6 under and sits eight shots back of Chacarra. As for McIlroy, he opened with rounds of 70 and 68 but is 2 over through 15 holes in Round 3 and 10 shots back of Chacarra.
Like Reed, Chacarra has been trying to shoot the scores necessary to get him to the PGA Tour. He’s all but assured himself of that, but now he’s got his eyes on besting two of the world’s best players to claim a season-long title many thought would be decided by a McIlroy-Reed tug-of-war.
“Obviously they’re [two of the best players in the world], so for me to compete with them I need to bring my A-game, and I’m trying to do that,” Chacarra said on Saturday. “My team and myself are putting all we can to contend in Dubai. Obviously, I need to get points, have some good weeks because those guys, they never rest. It’s always going to be a good week for them; they’re going to win.
“So I need to, like, get my momentum going, and hopefully I can keep doing that.”
Four years ago, Reed was on the 4Aces, Chacarra was a member of Fireballs GC, McIlroy was the PGA Tour’s lead spokesperson in golf’s civil conflict and the DP World India Championship didn’t exist. Then McIlroy threw his support behind the event. He added it and the Australian Open to his schedule as he looked to check national opens and new golf experiences off his professional bucket list. Chacarra left LIV Golf in 2025 and Reed followed a year later. The once-Saudi-backed league is now sinking in bankruptcy court as it tries to survive after losing funding from the Public Investment Fund. On Wednesday, the league’s lawyers said they would know by the end of the month whether they were wrapping things up or restarting.
On the other side of the world, two former LIV stars and LIV’s biggest opponent are dueling for one of pro golf’s biggest prizes. Perhaps that’s the biggest sign that the game is finally starting to come together.
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