DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Rory McIlroy started the strongest of the Race to Dubai title contenders at the season-ending World Tour Championship on Thursday, shooting a 3-under 69 to sit in third place, two strokes off first-round leader Joost Luiten.
McIlroy is seeking to claim the yearlong award -- crowning the top player on the European tour -- for a record-tying eighth time and for the fifth straight year. He is guaranteed to do so with a victory at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week.
The world No. 2 is second in the Race to Dubai standings behind Eugenio Chacarra, who shot 72 and was three strokes behind McIlroy.
Patrick Reed, third in the standings and the other realistic title contender, failed to turn around his recent slump and shot 75. Jon Rahm, who needs to win and hope for Chacarra and McIlroy to finish way down the leaderboard, opened with a 71.
Luiten handled the Earth course best on a day when the wind picked up and thick rough lining the fairways and around the greens proved to be punitive.
The Dutch player went out in 31 after five birdies on his front nine and was even par coming home, with a 6-foot birdie putt at the par-5 18th wrapping up a round of 67.
With so many points on offer this week, a win would come with a huge reward for any outsider like Luiten. That's because also up for grabs this week are 10 places on next season's PGA Tour available to European tour members who are not otherwise exempt.
Luiten isn't currently one of those 10. He was a stroke clear of Jacob Skov Olesen, who is among those in line for a PGA Tour card.
Victor Perez, Gregorio De Leo, Freddy Schott and Francesco Laporta were alongside McIlroy a further shot back after their 69s.
Kota Kaneko became the second Japanese player to win the rookie of the year award on the European tour, at the end of a season when he won the Austrian Alpine Open and finished runner-up at the Soudal Open in a two-week stretch in May.
Kaneko had four other top-20 finishes to qualify as one of the leading 50 available players for the World Tour Championship, where he shot 74 in the first round.