World No3 Rory McIlroy saluted his happy knack of rising to the occasion after he won the season-ending DP World Tour Championship yesterday to clinch his third Race To Dubai title in four years.
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For the second year in a row, Rory McIlroy is the number one golfer in Europe after he came from one shot behind, to prevail on the final day at the World Tour Championship in Dubai.
He finished a shot clear of England’s Andy Sullivan on 21-under-par. He’s got all the shots and obviously putts very well.
“It doesn’t really get any better than that”. The 29-year-old Englishman led by three after four holes of the final round in Dubai, with McIlroy taking until the 12th to nullify that advantage.
McIlroy’s rival in the Race to Dubai, Danny Willett, started well but after four birdies by the 10th he was unable to keep going.
Sullivan said he fully expected McIlroy to hole the long putt for bogey on the 17th, especially after giving him such a good read with his own putt.
“Probably not – probably not within the next 48 hours”, said McIlroy, who now has four European Tour titles (he has 11 on the PGA Tour), including four in Dubai.
It was an impressive result for McIlroy, who needed a controversial exemption to compete in the European Tour’s season finale despite not playing enough events. It takes two to duel and in Sullivan there was a player who started the year 150th in the world but will close it out in the top 40, knowing that he can mix it with the very best.
“We didn’t finish great but I don’t think it would have made too much of a difference any way”.
Spectators massed to witness the arrival of McIlroy, as well as Ivor Robson call his last match after 41 years as the official European Tour starter.
“I think I’m right there”, McIlroy told reporters when asked how near he was to peak form.
A season which featured him rupturing his ankle tendon ended with him straining every competitive sinew to ensure he prevailed in the DP World Tour Championship and so win his fourth title of 2015. “I guess if I had been tied playing the last, I would have backed myself with my length, but giving myself that one-shot cushion made a huge difference”.
“I gave it everything on that front nine, I just couldn’t quite get the putts to drop on the back nine”.
That scenario looked set to be repeated on the 12th when McIlroy holed from 25 feet, but Sullivan’s birdie attempt narrowly missed and the pair were tied on 20 under with six holes to play.
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“I actually turned to my caddie on 17 and said: ‘I expect him to hole this.’ That’s just the quality he is and the world-class performer he is”. “Yeah, everything was just firing today and that’s why I’m walking off the golf course a little bit disappointed because that 65 could have easily been a 62 or a 61”.
