Shane Lowry admits he's burned out and running on empty as he faces his 10th tournament in 12 weeks in Dubai this week.

In fact, the 27-old Offaly man was so downcast after his disappointing share of 25th in the Turkish Airlines Open that he confessed that he might be better off not travelling to the $5m Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City from December 4-7, where he'd be guaranteed $100,000 just for coming last in the 30-man field.

"I think it has just been a long year to be honest," Lowry said as he tried to explain his lost weekend at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal, where he was tied for the lead with 14 holes of the final round remaining and played them in five over par. "I am feeling very flat, feeling burned out to be honest.

"I might even consider not going to Sun City, if I have a good finish, that’s the way I am feeling now. I would almost be better off saying, right give it one go next week and take six weeks off. Get ready for next year.

"I have played too many tournaments where I shouldn’t have played and mentally I am not in the right frame of mind to finish tournaments off at this time of the year."

With huge world ranking points on offer in Sun City, not to mention a winner's cheque for $1.25m, time will tell if Lowry finds the energy to travel to South Africa.

Who knows, he may secure the finish he needs to break into the world's Top 50 in this week's DP World Tour Championship in Dubai and if he does, a trip to Sun City with his younger brother Alan may be just the end of season tonic he needs to recharge his depleted batteries.

If he doesn't play well enough in Dubai, the Nedbank Golf Challenge offers him a final chance to secure that Masters invitation before Christmas rather than wait until the next qualifying cut off, which comes after the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in late March.

Whatever way you cut it, this week's European Tour finale is huge for Lowry, who has also dropped out of the $5m Bonus Pool money in the Race to Dubai by slipping from 15th to 17th. The Top 15 on Sunday night will share the cash with McIlroy taking the top $1.25m bonus and the players finishing 15th getting $100,000.

Changing the dynamic of recent weeks will require some good psychological and technical work by his coach Neil Manchip over the next few days.

"I am trying my hardest to get good finishes," said Lowry of his struggle to push through that Top 50 barrier. "One shot at a time, it is easy to say but hard to do. OK, when you are playing well, it is easy to do."

Ignoring the ramifications of results is clearly a challenge for Lowry, who would love to tuck that Masters invitation away by Christmas rather than leaving himself needing good finishes early next year.

The problem is that the world No 52 has been on the go since the Omega European Masters in early September and had just two weeks off since then.

Ranked 62nd in the world after Crans, he's closed in on the Top 50 thanks to a share of second in Wales and sixth in the Alfred Dunhill Links.

But he's also had some forgettable weeks, such as his group stage elimination in the Volvo World Match Play, 34th in the WGC-HABC CHampions after a terrible start or last week's disappointing share of 25th in Antalya.

"It has been a good year," Lowry said of a season that only got going when he finished     15th in the Spanish Open in his ninth start of the year and then came second to new Race to Dubai champion Rory McIlroy in the BMW PGA at Wentworth.

Before then he'd played poorly, missing six of his first eight cuts, which prompted him to add extra events to his schedule.

Wentworth rebooted his year and while he narrowly missed the cut in the US Open at Pinehurst and the Irish Open, he was fourth in the Scottish Open and ninth in The Open.

If he play the Nedbank, he will tally 28 events in a season for the first time since his first full season in 2010.

He was 161st in the world at the end of that year but having secured a top 10 finish in Dubai in 2011, he's confident he can do well at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

"The course in Dubai suits me," he said on Sunday. "I like it."

Long hitting is required to do well in Dubai and Lowry was certainly long and reasonably straight in Turkey.

"I drove the ball well pretty much all week, few tee shots didn’t fit my eye and i didn’t hit great shots. But I drove it long and if i can keep that going next week I will be alright."

McIlroy will be the bookies' favourite to win the tournament while Graeme McDowell will need all his short game brilliance to compete for a win that could get him back into the world's Top 10.

The Portrush man is currently ranked 15th while Michael Hoey is 190th, Damien McGrane 320th and Padraig Harrington down another 18 spots to 371st following his 14th missed cut of the season in Mexico last week.

Harrington will be in South Africa this week for the Gary Player Invitational at the Lost City Golf Course, a charity event where he will play with two businessmen and a celebrity in a team format.