Otaegui leads the DP World after the first round and Rahm is third

Magnificent start for three of the five Spaniards in the last and multi-million dollar event of the European Tour season, the DP World Tour Championshiip, which is being played from today at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. Adrian Otaegui shares the lead with Englishman Jordan Smith, with 66 strokes (-6), and Jon Rahm, defending champion, shares third place with another English player, Danny Willett, winner of the Augusta Masters in 2016. They are one stroke behind the leaders.

Otaegui turned in a card without a single bogey and with six birdies, while Smith had six birdies, an eagle and two bogeys.

Rahm could have had an even better first day if, after going -6 on the 15th, he had not missed bogeys on the 16th and 17th, which were partly cleared up with a birdie on the 18th.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello has also done a good role in the opening day of this Rolex Series tournament endowed with 8 million dollars in prizes, of which 1.3 are for the winner. He has solved the first 18 holes with a total of -3, with which he occupies the shared tenth place.

Sergio Garcia has registered today -1 and is twenty-eighth, and Jorge Campillo has not been able to cope with the course and his +2 relegates him to 52nd place tied with five other players. Behind him, there are only three players, since this tournament is limited to the 60 best players of the year.

This tournament will also decide who will be the number one of the season in the Race to Dubai, and the duel, due to the score they currently hold in the ranking, is limited to two players: Francesco Molinari, winner of the British Open, and Tommy Feetwood, who won last year’s Race to Dubai.

The Italian has started the tournament at 4 under par, one stroke behind his English rival. For Fleetwood to be crowned best player of the 2018 European Tour according to the Race to Dubai, he would have to win the DP World Tour Championship and for Molinari to finish fifth or worse on the greens of the Jumeirah Real Estates. The winner of the Race to Dubai will pocket $1.2 million for doing so.