Tommy Fleetwood is aiming to reach new heights as he prepares to start 2026 by defending his Dubai Invitational title at Dubai Creek Resort, in the first event of the International Swing.
The World Number Three had a stellar end to his 2025 campaign as he claimed the FedExCup on the PGA TOUR, recorded his eighth DP World Tour win at the DP World India Championship and played a starring role in Europe’s historic Ryder Cup victory in New York.
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The Englishman has been inside the world’s top 50 for almost nine years and now sits in his highest ever position, just behind runaway leader Scottie Scheffler and career Grand Slam winner Rory McIlroy. And while the 2017 Race to Dubai champion knows there is much work to do to to get past them, he is aiming for the very top.
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Fleetwood is joined in the field for the biennial event by McIlroy and their fellow European Ryder Cup stars Shane Lowry – the 2019 Open Champion – and 2023 DP World Tour Championship winner Nicolai Højgaard amongst a host of DP World Tour winners, including Opening Swing champion and current Race to Dubai leader Jayden Schaper.
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Lowry is making his Dubai Invitational debut, as the Irishman aims to win his seventh DP World title, and looks forward to an enjoyable two weeks in Dubai.
Meanwhile Schaper is looking to continue his recent momentum into the new year after starting the 2026 season in dream fashion with back-to-back wins in December.
The Dubai Invitational, hosted by Abdulla Al Naboodah, consists of two competitions running concurrently – a 72-hole strokeplay DP World Tour tournament (no cut) and a three-day team pro-am (Thursday to Saturday), with Sunday featuring professionals only.
Player quotes
Tommy Fleetwood: I played really well here two years ago. I enjoyed playing with Rory in that last round. And winning is always cool. I had the family there. It was amazing.
The golf course, I played it the last couple of days, nine holes, and in the morning. I think it’s so important to have the ball in the fairway. You play well, you’re going to have all the chance in the world to shoot a good score, but if you don’t it’s going to be a battle.
I still look at it as big picture and try to be the best golfer I can be, and I think there’s plenty of room for improvement still. No doubt last year was an amazing year for me and by the time the year was done, found myself like in a position in the game where I’ve never been before in terms of World Ranking and stuff like that, and the win on the PGA TOUR was huge.
There is a clear gap (to Scheffler and McIlroy), those two guys are definitely the best golfers in the world. I’m just one of the players in the pack behind that has some catching up to do there. Look at every aspect of my game, where I can improve, where I can pick the smallest amount of shots up to those guys.
But it’s an amazing challenge, if you think of it like that. Starting the year in a different position than I’ve ever been, world No. 3, and I think that’s very cool and very exciting to sort of have to think about trying to maintain the level that I’ve reached there.
I just think it’s very, very cool and very special and I just love the fact that I am sort of in the mix and you’ve even asked me a question of those two guys are the best two in the world, what do you have to do to try and catch them, I think it’s a massive compliment to me and I think it’s something that’s really, really exciting.
