Rory McIlroy will start in pole position in the European Tour's Race to Dubai when the Dubai World Championship starts at the Earth course in Jumeirah Golf Estates on Thursday.

The 20-year-old Northern Irishman has been the toast of European golf ever since his breakthrough win earlier this year at the Dubai Desert Classic, and the world No. 13 will be hoping to sign off the season in style with a victory in the European Tour's new season-ending tournament in the same city.

Of the 58 players in the field, only four players - McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher - have a chance to win the Race to Dubai, the re-christened Order of Merit which now comes along with a 1.5 million dollars bonus prize.

With the winner's cheque worth 1.25 million dollars this week, a win by any of the four players will land them the Race to Dubai crown.

McIlroy, who leaped ahead of Westwood last week with back-to-back top-four finishes in Shanghai and Hong Kong, made no bones about his intentions.

"Winning the Race to Dubai would be a great honour. If you win, it shows how consistent you've been over the course of the year," said McIlroy.

"I'm still thinking about winning the Dubai World Championship and if I can do that, then everything else will take care of itself.

"I'm coming in here with a good bit of form and hopefully I can keep that going and give myself another chance to win this week. It would be nice to get a double in Dubai."

McIlroy's closest challenger is Westwood, who fell behind by 128,172 dollars after finishing 54th in Hong Kong to McIlroy's second place.

The 36-year-old Englishman, winner of the Harry Vardon trophy in 2000, knows what he has to do if he wants to win the honour of being called the No.1 European golfer again.

"Last week was just a bit of an off week, nothing really went for me and I couldn't get anything going. Nothing happened on the greens and the final round was just typical of that," said Westwood.

"The Race to Dubai is still in my hands, regardless. The difference between first and second this week is more than the difference in the race. So, if I win, I win the money list.

"That's what I set out to do at the start of the last few weeks, to make sure I was within the difference between first and second and I am going to be that."

The only way McIlroy and Westwood can now lose the Race to Dubai is if Kaymer or Fisher win.

However, they still have a chance in case of a Fisher win, but will have to finish in sole second place on Sunday.

Also in focus this week is the Greg Norman-designed Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, which was officially launched this week.

At more than 7,700 yards, length will definitely be an issue for the players, along with its massive and tricky greens. However, the fairways are extremely forgiving and there is virtually no rough.

McIlroy said: "For how new it is, I think the golf course is in great shape. Like all new golf courses these days, it has big fairways, big greens, a lot of bunkering, and I think aesthetically it looks very good with the white bunkers and the red wood chips.

"There are probably a few bunkers that are positioned a little too close to the middle of the fairway.

"It doesn't give you many options on some of the holes. It's definitely not as tricky as Valderrama."

The Dubai World Championship replaces the Volvo Masters at Valderrama as the season-ending championship of the European Tour.

Only the top-60 players qualify to play the 7.5 million dollar event, the richest golf tournament on the European Tour schedule outside the Majors and WGCs.

The two players missing action this week are No.5 Paul Casey of England (rib injury) and American No.36 Anthony Kim.