The week in Dubai started with a showdown on the practice tee and ended with drama on the 72nd hole.
Rory McIlroy holed a slippery downhill 14½-foot birdie early Monday at Emirates Golf Club to cap a birdie-birdie finish and clip American nemesis Patrick Reed to win the weather-delayed Hero Dubai Desert Classic by one stroke.
It was the third Dubai victory for McIlroy, the 33-year-old Northern Irishman who used to live in Dubai and pockets his first Rolex Series title.
“It’s been a battle all week,” McIlroy said. “I really feel like I didn’t have my best, but I just managed my game.
“I showed a lot of mental strength out there, something to go along for the rest of the year. I’m going to enjoy it. It’s a great start to the year.”
McIlroy found the winning formula on the par-5 18th hole after his drive nestled down in the rough right of the fairway, on the red line indicated the penalty area. He laid up short of the water fronting the green and wedged to within 15 feet.
One day earlier, he found the water and made bogey on the closing hole, marring an otherwise flawless round of 65 as he took a three-stroke lead into the final round. A year earlier, needing birdie at the final hole to win, he dumped a 3-wood into the water, missing a playoff in which Viktor Hovland would defeat Richard Bland.
“I wasn’t going to get fooled a third time,” McIlroy said of his strategy Monday on the final hole.
McIlroy shot 4-under 68 for a 19-under 269 total. Reed, who closed with a 65, finished at 18-under 270.
The week started with a tiff on the practice tee when McIlroy appeared to have ignored Reed, who responded with the casual flip of a LIV Golf-branded tee in McIlroy’s direction. The incident took on a life of its own on social media, turning up the heat on an already taut relationship between the two Ryder Cup rivals.
In the lead singles match of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National, Reed clipped McIlroy, 1-up, punctuating the Americans’ 17-11 rout. In the past year, McIlroy has been an outspoken critic of LIV Golf and has shunned the recruits for the Saudi-funded rival tour. The relationship between the two rivals, already shaky, soured further during the past week in Dubai.
But McIlroy, in his first start of 2023, solidified his spot atop the Official World Golf Ranking. He owns 31 titles between the PGA and DP World tours, including four major championships.
McIlroy, who also won at Dubai in 2009 and 2015, earned $1.53 million from the $9 million purse. He joined Ernie Els (1994, 2002, 2005) as the only three-time winners of the Dubai Desert Classic.
Steve Harmon