It began with a tee and ended with a putt. From the start of the week, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed had been embroiled in a tussle that ended up lasting all 4 rounds and culminated with a birdie-birdie end by McIlroy to win the Dubai Desert Traditional for the the third time. McIlroy additionally begins his 12 months with a win for the primary time in his adorned profession.
Previous to the event, McIlroy ignored Reed’s method on the driving vary in Dubai, citing that Reed’s lawyer, Larry Klayman, had served McIlroy a subpoena at his house on Christmas Eve. Reed tossed a tee within the basic course of McIlroy (which, this being golf, grew to become a large storyline) and later referred to McIlroy as an “immature little little one.”
Then the event began.
McIlroy took a wholesome lead into the ultimate spherical in Dubai, taking pictures 66-70-65 within the first three rounds for what regarded like it could be his third win in his final seven begins. Reed, who received caught up in one other controversy in the course of the third spherical on Sunday when his ball might or might not have landed within the tree wherein he ultimately recognized it (see video under for the total story), had totally different plans on Monday within the finale.
The previous Masters champion was 7 underneath by way of 13 holes, and McIlroy could not actually get going. He performed the primary 15 in simply 2 underneath, a decent rating however not sufficient with the entire discipline charging. On No. 17, although, he hit his method to 4 ft to make the putt for birdie, after which gave himself a 14-footer for an additional birdie on the 72nd gap to win the event. He canned it for a birdie-birdie end and the fifteenth win of his DP World Tour profession.
McIlroy has not completed outdoors the highest 4 in his final seven skilled tournaments, and he is received three of these, together with final 12 months’s Tour Championship and CJ Cup. This one, although, was much more private due to how all the things started with Reed and since he was the one pushing McIlroy towards the end line.
“Mentally it was very powerful in the present day,” mentioned McIlroy. “I felt like I may have let my feelings get in the way in which. I expended lots of psychological power in the present day attempting to concentrate on myself and concentrate on taking pictures a rating and attempting to achieve a quantity. I needed to work actually exhausting to neglect about who was up there and simply attempt to concentrate on myself.”
McIlroy has misplaced to simply 10 gamers in his final seven begins, and he has 12 top-five finishes in 17 begins courting again to the 2022 Masters. He and Jon Rahm, who has received 4 of his final seven begins, are far and away the 2 finest gamers on this planet. The scary half for the remainder of the world is that McIlroy does not even really feel nice about his sport proper now.
“I feel, once more, essentially the most satisfying factor to me this week is I have not had my finest, removed from it, and to have the ability to win when you do not have your finest, that is the kind of just like the Holy Grail of what we try to do,” mentioned McIlroy. “Actually happy with that facet of it however positively there is a ton of room for enchancment going into the subsequent few weeks.”
The win means McIlroy joins Els with three profession victories at this occasion, essentially the most of anybody in historical past.
“Dubai has been a giant a part of my profession and my journey, and , to place my title on this trophy for a 3rd time in the present day, to hitch Ernie Els, is a fairly cool feeling,” he mentioned.