Wednesday 11 November 2015 13:55, UK
Danny Willett is looking to take advantage of Rory McIlroy’s absence from this week’s BMW Masters and move above the world No 3 at the top of the Race to Dubai standings.
McIlroy is the only player currently inside the top 15 of the rankings not to feature this week in Shanghai, giving several players, including Willett, the chance to move above the defending champion in to top spot.
Willett closed the gap to less than 75,000 points after a bogey-free final round 62 at the WGC-HSBC Champions parachuted him in to a tie for third, with the 28-year-old now looking to build a considerable lead at the top of the rankings heading in to next week's season-ending finale in Dubai.
"If we can go to Dubai next week somewhere close, either in front or in front by a good way, it would make it really good," Willett said on Wednesday. "We're just going to do the same as we did last week, try and knuckle down and work hard and hopefully we can have another good week.
"I finished 11th in Turkey, third last week and I had a bit of a lull spell a little bit before that. At Woburn I was working on a few things and it just took a little bit longer to bed everything in.
"Hopefully it [his game] is on its way back up now to where we can keep moving it forward again."
Willett will feature alongside Shane Grace and Louis Oosthuizen, the pair third and fourth in the standings, for the first two rounds, while Branden Grace and Justin Rose, two other players who can move in to top spot this week, tee off alongside Open de France champion Bernd Wiesberger.
The Englishman can claim top spot heading into the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai by finishing 28th or better in the 78-man field in Shanghai, while Lowry, Oosthuizen and Rose need to finish second or better and Grace requires a win.
Martin Kaymer is also part of this week's field, looking to end a winless drought on the European Tour that stretches back to last year's US Open.
The German has dropped to world No 26 after only manage four top-10 finishes worldwide during 2015, but Kaymer remains confident of finishing the season strongly.
"I have another two tournaments left this year that count for The Race to Dubai, so hopefully I can pick up a win," Kaymer told a pre-tournament press conference. "Usually, I don't really have a season without a win and I don't want to have that this year.
"Overall, the season so far, I wouldn't rate great because I haven't won a tournament. I've had a few top tens here and there, but at the end of the day, we all play for wins.
"I see [these two weeks] more as an opportunity to fulfil my minimum expectations. They are very big events, with a lot of World Ranking points.
"I've never won one of these events, but I'm playing this week and next week, and it would be very, very nice to win at least one in my career."
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