The Dubai World Championship presented by DP World on the Earth Course, Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates sees the exciting finish of the Race to Dubai. See  Leaderboard

"Obviously I am looking forward to the week",  Lee said. "If I win the Dubai World Championship, I win The Race to Dubai, simple as that. That’s what I set out to do at the start of the last few weeks".

“Last week was just a bit of an off week - nothing really went for me and I couldn’t get anything going.  I know nothing about the Earth course (which was designed by Greg Norman). It will be a new experience for everybody so we will all be in the same boat.”

Victory on Sunday would make him Europe's number one for the second time, but Lee cannot now afford to finish outside the top seven to have a chance.

As the leading players in the Race to Dubai, Lee joined Rory McIlroy for the opening round with a 12.30 local time (08.30 GMT) tee-time on Thursday. He made par until the 7th hole, which he birdied, followed by the 8th, 10th and 11th.

"I played really good stuff out there", Lee said, "and was very patient on those first six holes. I knew if I was patient and kept hitting it the way I was hitting it, that birdies would come...and they did".

He bogeyed the 14th and said, ""That was a six I didn't really deserve.  I hit two cracking shots.  The second pitched in some old divot that had been sanded and killed it dead.  I'd expected it to bounce up onto the green and it curled round... left me with an awful chip down the hill".

He came back quickly with birdies at the next three holes to settle for a 6-under 66, ending the day in T2nd place.

And his game-plan?  "I'm here to try and win the golf tournament.  Whatever happens... happens!"

Lee had a second round tee-time of 8.30 GMT with Camilo Villegas.   He opened with a couple of birdies, dropped a shot on the par-4 8th, then finished with two birdies on his last three holes.  He took a two-shot lead at the halfway stage , after sinking a 20-footer birdie putt on the final hole for a round of three-under par 69,  giving him a two-day total of 9 -under 135 and sole position at the top of the leaderboard.

"I'm delighted with 69. It was certainly much harder than yesterday with the wind blowing. If I'm honest, some of the flag positions didn't really fit my eye, so I was finding it difficult out there. I was playing kind of a plodding game in between the second and 16th holes," Lee said.

"Some days, that happens. You struggle to get things going, the birdies don't quite come so freely, and then you have to just dig in there and just grind it out for a while."

He joined Ross McGowan for the third round at 08.40 GMT, producing a fabulous bogey-free 66, taking a two-shot lead into the final day on 15-under par.

In terms of best rounds, he rated this one as, "Right up there. Hardly missed a shot all day.  Gave myself a lot of chances.  Made some good putts you wouldn't expect to make - thinking mostly of the fourth- and made a nice few out there to keep the momentum running. I'm delighted how things have gone today".

Playing with Ross McGowan, Lee produced a flawless, final round, 8-under 64 (course record), for a final score of 23-under (265), six strokes ahead of the field, to win the Dubai World Championship, his 31st win and 20th European Tour win.   He made birdies at 2,3,5,6,7,10,13, missed a birdie at the 14th by inches, then birdied the 15th to take the title and win €830,675 in prize money and a further £893,016 from a bonus pool for the top 15 on the inaugural Race to Dubai..

 Race to Dubai Champion 2009

So, it's official, Lee is the first "Race to Dubai" Champion (previously the Order of Merit), for 2009, with €4,237,762. 

Lee said, " It's as good as I've ever played - under this kind of pressure - you know, it's nice to pull it off".  Clearly overcome, Lee admitted at one low point that he didn't want to play, and duly praised his caddie Billy Foster and his coach Pete Cowen who helped him get back to where he is today.

"It's hard to imagine playing better, getting the breaks when you need them, and just I didn't think I'd feel so calm out there. I think I learned a lot from my Open experience and tried to put it into practise today, and it paid off.

I've been calm all week. I was surprised how calm I was today. I was very confident in what I was doing. I expected to play well. I was a little bit nervous walking on to the first tee, but belt 3-wood 290 yards down the middle, that calms you.

After Turnberry, I was about as disappointed as I've ever been in my career I think. It just felt like it, and still does, feels like a championship I should have won. And The Open Championship is the most important tournament in the world to me. It is the one to win.

 
So to come so close and not win was obviously very disappointing, but like I said at the time, you've got to get over that sooner or later and turn finishing third in a major championship into positives, which I tried to do over the next few weeks; and backed that up with 9th in Bridgestone and a third in the PGA, and really had some good results since then.

So rather than the immediate feeling of disappointment carrying on, I tried to draw confidence from it and move on and be ready for next time. Today almost felt a similar pressure to try to win The Open Championship, because this is over a year, or 14 months obviously; it means a lot to be the European No. 1, to be able to say that again.

I tried to feel differently to how I felt coming down the stretch at Turnberry, and I had nothing but positive thoughts out there. The 6-iron I hit on 17 is probably one of the best shots I'll ever hit. Just belt it into that left-to-right wind and stopped it ten feet in the hole. There can't have been that many people that close to the hole today. And good shots today: Driver and 9-iron into the previous hole, 16. Hit a wedge to two feet on 15. Just good shots all day.

It's very difficult to say when it turned around. I can tell you, it's been a combination of a lot of things. A lot of credit's got to go to Steve MacGregor, the guy that I work with in the gym. I think it probably all turned around three years ago when I started working with him to be perfectly honest.

Even though the immediate effect might not be on the golf course, certainly he brought some professionalism, and he's a very analytical person. He brought that to the way I felt and started thinking about the game and thinking about my fitness, and that has helped me on the range, try and implement things in my golf swing that I think I need to improve as well. He's helped with nutrition and stuff like that. So he's been a big help.

And then obviously starting working with Billy has made a phenomenal difference. It's always reassuring; I think he's the best caddie, certainly in Europe, maybe in the world. And it's nice that I get on with him so well. You know, we are good mates, and you're never quite sure how that's going to turn out when you start working with somebody you get on really well with. It can go one of two ways really. So it's great that that has clicked into place.

When I started working with Billy, I was still working with Mark on my short game, Mark Roe, and I was just getting a bit stuck and not really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with Mark. And Billy suggested that I go back to Pete, because he had seen the way Pete gives bunker lessons and stuff like that. That's really where started because my bunker game wasn't very good.

It all has just clicked through there. I think short game, the bunker play, my chipping, my pitching is starting to improve and that's spread into the rest of my game. Because generally over the years I've had a trend where the poorness in my short game has been reflective through the rest of my game, you know, through to the long swings. So I think that's just creeping through the whole of the game.

And they are the three guys, really, on the course; and Chubby I've been with for 16 years. He makes it very easy for me just to concentrate on golf. And my family at home are very supportive through the good times and the bad times, and back through the good times. I've got a lot of people helping me.

Lee has now moved to 4th place in World Ranking.