Rory McIlroy has played down safety concerns about competing at the Abu Dhabi Championship this week, amid tensions in the Middle East that have impacted the sports calendar in the region.
It is the first of lucrative, back-to-back season-ending events in the United Arab Emirates over the next two weeks that will determine who wins the year-long Race to Dubai title, which crowns the No. 1 player on the European tour.
McIlroy is third in the standings, behind Eugenio Chacarra and Patrick Reed, as he chases a record-tying eighth season-long title.
The tour decided to stick to the upcoming schedule of Abu Dhabi and Dubai amid increased security concerns in the Middle East because of the Israel-Iran war. Last month saw deadly attacks on Saudi Arabia, which shares a border with the UAE.
“I don’t think I would ever feel unsafe,” McIlroy, one of golf's most high-profile players, said Wednesday — a day before the Abu Dhabi Championship begins. "You know, even if something were to happen, like I still wouldn’t feel unsafe.
“You know, the UAE has great defense systems. Yeah, I think the only thing would be that if they closed the air space and you were stuck here for a period of time, like people were at the start of year, but like I would still feel safe. I wouldn’t feel like I would be in any danger.”
McIlroy said he has remained in close contact with the tour about the security situation in the UAE.
"If everyone deems that it’s safe to be here, then who am I to say otherwise?” the No. 2-ranked Northern Irishman said.
“You know, this is important to me. I want to play well. I want to end my year well. I wanted to have a chance to win another Race to Dubai. I don’t feel like there’s any risk coming here but if I did feel like there was a risk, I feel like the reward is worth it.”
No. 3-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick raised concerns in September about Dubai hosting the final event of the European season, saying it was a “no-brainer” to switch to a different country.
“But I’m not a sponsor, I’m not paying the bills and all that sort of stuff," Fitzpatrick told the BBC.
Fitzpatrick is among some big names not playing this week in Abu Dhabi, though he is assured of being in the 50-man field for the World Tour Championship in Dubai next week — if he opts to play.
The Asian Tour already has postponed one of its most prestigious events, the PIF Saudi International that was scheduled for Nov. 18-21.
The 2027 Asian Cup soccer tournament, scheduled to start Jan. 7, has been pushed back to December, while the season-ending WTA Finals in women’s tennis were moved from Saudi Arabia to Indian Wells, California.
This weekend's Qatar Grand Prix in MotoGP won't include Japanese team Yahama, which pulled out over safety concerns. Season-ending Formula 1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi are still on the calendar, though the Saudi Grand Prix was canceled this season and the Bahrain race relocated to Malaysia.
McIlroy is looking to join Colin Montgomerie on eight Race to Dubai titles — in the Scot's day, it was called the Order of Merit — but needs a big final two weeks.
McIlroy is around 1,000 points behind Chacarra and 330 behind Reed. The winner this week will gain 1,500 points, second place gets 1,000, while third gets 565.
The winner of the World Tour Championship next week picks up 2,000 points.
McIlroy, Reed and Chacarra are in the same group for the opening two rounds in Abu Dhabi. The reigning Masters champion has had many tussles with Reed down the years, but has never played with Chacarra.
“You look at Eugenio and Patrick as former LIV players but coming back and going through the process of trying to build their way back through the game and through this tour,” McIlroy said, "and ultimately both of them are going to get a PGA Tour card again next year.
“I have a lot of respect for them with the way that they have done it.”
See AP’s full golf coverage here
FILE - Rory McIlroyof Northern Ireland tees off during the Irish Open at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, Ireland, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — At the urging of President Donald Trump, Republicans in eight states redrew the boundaries of dozens of congressional districts over the past year while angling for an edge that could help them hold onto a slim House majority in a tough midterm election.
Ultimately, it didn't work.
Republicans lost most of the Democratic-held seats they had targeted to flip, lost others they had banked on retaining and got swept out of power by a Democratic surge fueled by voter dissatisfaction with Trump, the economy and the war with Iran.
The Republican redistricting plan fell flat in Alabama, Florida and Texas. It got scuttled by courts in Missouri and then firmly defeated by its voters Tuesday. And it got offset in California, where a retaliatory Democratic redistricting flipped previously Republican-held seats.
The Trump redistricting plan “was systematically dismantled,” former Attorney General Eric Holder, chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in an election night statement. “And given the opportunity, voters instead chose to elect a new Democratic majority.”
Congressional voting districts typically are redrawn after a census at the start of each decade to account for population changes. But Trump spurred an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle last year when he urged Texas Republicans to reshape U.S. House districts to give the GOP a shot at winning five additional seats in the midterm election.
A cascade of redistricting followed, spurred along in the South by a Supreme Court ruling that weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for majority Black districts. Republicans hoped their redistricting could net as many as four more seats in Florida, two in Ohio and one each in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee.
In all but one of those revamped districts, Trump would have carried over 54% of the vote had they been in place for the 2024 election, according to Associated Press estimates.
“In normal times, that sort of district is relatively safe,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who runs the “All About Redistricting” website.
But the presumed Republican districts got undercut by shifting viewpoints of Trump. The AP Voter Poll found about 6 in 10 disapprove of how Trump is handling the presidency. Views of Trump’s priorities also were mostly negative.
“It’s foolish to presume that the electorate in one year is going to look like the electorate in another in a time of radical swings in public opinion," Levitt said. “I think it is likely that some line-drawers got cocky.”
In Texas, Republicans reconfigured three heavily Latino districts in the Rio Grande Valley, which had shifted toward Trump in 2024, to try to boost their chances of unseating Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. But both won reelection Tuesday. And Democrats instead unseated Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, whose district is sandwiched between theirs.
Though De La Cruz's new district retained the same percentage of Trump-inclined voters as the 2024 version, about 3 in 5 voting-age residents were new — making it harder for her to compete against Democratic challenger Bobby Pulido, a well-known Latin Grammy award winner.
The AP Voter Poll indicates a substantial shift in Hispanics moving away from Republicans compared with Trump’s victory just two years ago. Nationally about one-third of Hispanics say they backed the Republican in their local U.S. House race, while roughly 4 in 10 voted for Trump two years ago.
Republicans had “unrealistic assumptions about a shift in Latino voting" remaining in their favor, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.
Republicans in Florida tried to tilt four more House seats to the GOP in Trump’s adopted home state. Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz was among their targets, but he decided to run anyway in one of the redrawn districts. He won reelection Tuesday.
“I’ve worked across the aisle. I’ve delivered results for my community, and they spent $26 million trying to beat me,” Moskowitz said after his victory in Florida’s 25th Congressional District. “They lit that money on fire tonight.”
He said voters in his new district, like those nationwide, were most concerned about the economy and their ability to afford a good quality of life. But he said that redistricting angered voters, too.
After redistricting, about two-thirds of voting-age residents were new to the district represented by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor. But she also won reelection. Democrat Pia Dandiya won yet another district -- an open seat in southern Florida — that Republicans had reshaped for an advantage.
In Alabama, a Supreme Court ruling allowed the Republican-led Legislature to revert to what the GOP considered to be a friendlier map. But Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures won reelection anyway, defying Republicans' plans.
Republicans redrew two congressional districts in eastern North Carolina with a goal of unseating Democratic Rep. Don Davis in the 1st Congressional District, which has sent a Black member to Congress for more than 30 years. They made Davis' district a bit more Republican by bringing in thousands of voters from the 3rd Congressional District, held by Republican Rep. Greg Murphy. In exchange, they reassigned thousands of Democratic-leaning areas to Murphy's district.
The ensuing advertising battle for Davis' seat cost well over $50 million, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, ranking among the most expensive House races nationally.
Davis held a slight lead Tuesday night, and the race between Murphy and Democratic challenger Raymond Smith was particularly close.
What started as a Republican redistricting effort could become a Democratic redistricting movement ahead of the presidential election.
Maryland voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that will make it easier for the state's Democratic-led General Assembly to redraw districts to the party's advantage. Democratic proponents, backed by former President Barack Obama, have touted it as a way to “stop Trump.”
Democrats who made gains in numerous state legislatures Tuesday also could use that power for redistricting. And Democratic lawmakers in New York already have taken an initial step toward congressional redistricting before the 2028 elections.
But the recent midterm redistricting revealed it can be difficult to anticipate voter behavior when trying to gerrymander districts for partisan advantage. That could particularly be the case for the next presidential election, which would be the first in a dozen years without Trump's name atop the ballot, making it hard to know how his supporters would realign behind new candidates.
“It’s really tough to pick a political model that accurately shows you who’s likely to show up in 2028,” Levitt said.
Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
Santiago Rivera paints on a sign outside a polling place after casting his ballot on Election Day during the midterm election Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Clayton, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., mingles with supporters at an election night event, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)
Democratic House candidate Bobby Pulido arrives at a polling location at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's Student Academic Center on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Edinburg, Texas. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via AP)
