Rory McIlroy held off Rasmus Højgaard to win the DP World Tour Championship by two pictures, sealing his sixth Race to Dubai crown within the course of.
The pair produced one other tight closing spherical encounter at Jumeirah Golf Estates following their again 9 battle at he Irish Open in September.
It was Højgaard who got here out on high on that event, however McIlroy took the spoils this time, pulling clear with a powerful strategy to arrange a faucet in birdie on 16 and ending his season with a closing birdie on 18.
McIlroy’s three below par closing spherical 69 clinched his third victory within the DP World Tour Championship, having beforehand received the title in 2012 and 2015.
On each these events he additionally received the Race to Dubai crown and he completed the season because the DP World Tour’s no.1 participant for a sixth time general, matching the feat of the Seve Ballesteros, with Colin Montgomerie’s file of eight now in his sights.
South African Thriston Lawrence was the one participant initially of the week who might have prevented McIlroy from successful the Race to Dubai, however he completed the event in a share of thirtieth place on one below par, 14 pictures behind McIlroy successful whole of 15 below.
As a substitute, McIlroy’s most important problem got here within the event from Højgaard, who was trying to observe within the footsteps of his twin brother Nicolai, who received the DP World Tour Championship 12 months in the past.
After bogeying the primary gap, Højgaard birdied the second and seventh holes and joined McIlroy on the high of the leaderboard when the person from Northern Eire dropped pictures on the ninth and thirteenth holes.
Whereas McIlroy birdied two of the ultimate three holes, Højgaard couldn’t decide up any additional pictures on the best way in, closing out his spherical of 71 with 11 straight pars to complete runner up on 13 below par. That was sufficient to maneuver him previous Lawrence into second place within the closing Race to Dubai rankings although, which means he claimed the primary of the ten PGA TOUR playing cards on supply, having missed out by one spot final yr.
The opposite 9 gamers to safe twin membership on the PGA TOUR are: Lawrence (third on the Race to Dubai), Paul Waring (fifth), Jesper Svensson (tenth), Niklas Norgaard (11th), Matteo Manassero (12th), Thorbjørn Olesen (13th), Antoine Rozner (15th), Rikyua Hoshino (16th) and Tom McKibbin (18th).
For McIlroy although, it was a becoming solution to finish a season throughout which he has received 4 instances worldwide, together with twice on the DP World Tour in Dubai, having additionally triumphed within the Hero Dubai Desert Traditional in January.
The four-time Main Champion’s consistency this season is underlined by his file of eight top-five finishes in 12 DP World Tour appearances in 2024, ending runner 4 instances, within the Dubai Invitational, US Open, Amgen Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship.
McIlroy mentioned: “It means quite a bit. I’ve been via quite a bit this yr professionally and personally. It feels just like the becoming finish to 2024. I’ve persevered this yr. I’ve had shut calls and wasn’t capable of get it accomplished at quite a lot of large tournaments, so to have the ability to get this one over the road is massively necessary.”
“It’s actually cool to win a sixth Race to Dubai title. I believe everybody is aware of what Seve means to European golf and to Ryder Cup gamers. Within the European Ryder Cup locker room, all now we have are quotes of Seve. We had a altering room with Seve’s shirt from ’95, the final Ryder Cup he performed. He means a lot to European golf and for me to be talked about in the identical breath, I’m very proud.”
