Some of the game’s best players are in action at this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. While the BMW PGA is undoubtedly the DP World Tour flagship event, it is not the season finale.
The last two events of the season are scheduled for November in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. But there’s a big problem with that plan: both places have been under attack from Iran since its war with the United States broke out in February.
Tour officials said they are still committed to running the tournaments as scheduled, but questions have been raised about whether they should be moved or canceled.
If they advance, at least one star player is considering skipping those events due to safety concerns: 2022 US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick.
Matt Fitzpatrick on the events of the end of the season: “Frustrating that the decision has not been made”
The last two events of the 2026 DP World Tour season are the Abu Dhabi Championship in Abu Dhabi and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Both cities are part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and both have come under repeated attacks from Iran in recent months.
The safety issues that followed caused Formula 1 to cancel two races, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, earlier in the year. The question now is whether the DP World Tour will follow suit and cancel or move two of its events.
During his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday at the BMW PGA Championship, Fitzpatrick, who won last year’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubairevealed he would not be “comfortable” returning to defend his title this year. He cited the birth of his first child this year as one of the reasons.
“To be completely honest as things stand right now, I would say I’m not that comfortable. No, I wouldn’t be that comfortable,” Fitzpatrick said Wednesday. “Some things have obviously changed for me, perspective and things. I had a child in August, and this obviously changes things, I think, a little more.”
He also revealed a distrust of the news the Iran warespecially in the United States But it allowed some hope that the situation could improve between now and November.
“I think that in case – in the case of what you read on the news, I know the news, where you get your news is not always – it can be very one-sided, especially in the United States,” explained Fitzpatrick. “But I think that for me, as things are now, it would seem a little strange to me, given what you read elsewhere. Things can change overnight, I’m sure. I think it seems that it is going in that way of things getting better. I saw on the website of the United Kingdom, I know that it has changed from essential travel only to a step better than that.”
Fitzpatrick then expressed frustration that the DP World Tour had not yet made a final decision to cancel the events.
“Obviously I know the tour has been about this for a long time. It’s obviously frustrating that the decision hasn’t been made so we can plan what’s going to happen. But I understand there’s obviously a lot of moving parts in this, and it’s obviously difficult to make those decisions,” Fitzpatrick said.
He then claimed the tour had previously said they would make a decision on the UAE events in June and claimed the tour had been “vague” throughout the process.
“I feel like it’s been very vague the whole time and they haven’t necessarily had open communication, I would say,” Fitzpatrick said.
Finally, he countered that if the DP World Tour decided to go ahead with the events, he would still not be “disposed” to travel to the UAE to play.
“I think if the tour was going on, I’m sure they’d have the best possible advice on what that looks like,” Fitzpatrick said. “The way things are right now, I wouldn’t necessarily be too excited to go.”
