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.
They were in the final pairing Thursday, and McIlroy underlined his first-round superiority on the par-5 No. 18 with a 254-yard approach to 13 feet that set up a tap-in birdie, while Chacarra laid up from the rough and had to settle for par.
"Very pleased. It was tricky, windier than it usually is, and with the more punishing rough this week and crosswinds, I felt I did well to hit fairways," McIlroy said. "Anything in the 60s today I felt was a good score. Held it together when I needed to and in a good position going into the rest of the week."
Chacarra, playing his first year on the tour, acknowledged he was at a disadvantage against McIlroy and others who "have played this course a million more times."
"I know I need to do a couple of things better to be able to have a chance on Sunday, and that's what I'm going to focus on," Chacarra said. "If I fix those, a little strategy-wise, and I can putt a little better, I think I'm going to have a chance on Sunday."
Patrick Reed, third in the standings and the other realistic title contender, failed to turn around his recent slump and shot 75. After dropping a shot at No. 14 for his fourth bogey of the day, the American appeared to toss his putter toward his bag in frustration as he headed to the next tee.
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, going 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.
"I said to my caddie, 'We can only go up this week. We're last man in, we've got nothing to lose, so let's go for it,' and it worked out so far," Luiten said.
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.
"The first person was Ryo Hisatsune, [who] is a good friend of mine, same age, and I know him really well," Kaneko said. "So I'm really happy to be in the same category with him."
Kaneko, 24, 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.
The Associated Press and PA contributed to this report.