Cabrera confirms Dubai place

Masters champion Angel Cabrera will compete in next week’s HSBC Champions event in Shanghai and will therefore be eligible for the Dubai World Championship two weeks later.

After Cabrera missed his tee-off time and was disqualified from the Castello Masters in Spain last week – he had been delayed en route from the Grand Slam in Bermuda the previous day – there was speculation he might not play the minimum 12 events required by the European Tour for entry into the season-ending championship.

But the Argentinian has told the Tour he will be flying on from this week’s Volvo World Match Play to join the star-studded field headed by Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Although the Chinese event now has World Golf Championships status, a long list of players, mostly Americans, have turned down their places.

In addition to Fiji’s Vijay Singh and South African Tim Clark, not making the trip are world number three Steve Stricker, Ryder Cup team-mates Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry, Zach Johnson and Scott Verplank, plus Dustin Johnson, Heath Slocum, Marc Leishman and Sunday’s winner Troy Matteson.

Ian Poulter and Ernie Els were among those who could have missed out if everybody had decided to play, despite being ranked 21st and 22nd in the world, but there are now spots available for them.