A year of near-misses and personal difficulty came to a successful conclusion on Sunday in Dubai as Rory McIlroy birdied two of the last three holes to secure the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
McIlroy, 35, was emotional in the aftermath as he also captured his sixth Race to Dubai (season-long tour title), tying the late Seve Ballesteros to trail only eight-time winner Colin Montgomerie.
“I’ve been through a lot this year, professionally, personally and it feels like the fitting end to 2024,” McIlroy said in a post-round interview with Sky Sports after his final-round 69 at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
“I’ve persevered this year. I’ve had a lot of close calls, wasn’t able to get it done. So to be able to get over the line, I got off to a great start, and then I didn’t have my best around the middle of the round. I thought saving par on 15 was huge and then I made four great swings coming in with the wedge on 16, the shot into 17 and then the two shots in the last. So really pleased with the way I finished. I hung on a tough day and got the job done.”
Rory began the final round tied for the lead with Antoine Rozner and Rasmus Højgaard and after a bogey at the first hole made four consecutive birdies to seemingly take control of the tournament.
He dropped shots at the ninth and 13th to fall into a tie with Højgaard—who beat McIlroy down the stretch in September at the Irish Open—but his 15-footer for par at the 15th kept him tied before hitting a wedge shot close for a birdie at the 16th and then making the birdie at the 18th to win by two strokes.
Rory's final hole of 2024 🎥#DPWTC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/QxyFDiXUtX
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 17, 2024
It was the fourth victory of the year worldwide for McIlroy, who won early in the season at the Dubai Desert Classic and then captured PGA Tour events at the Zurich Classic (with Shane Lowry) and the Wells Fargo Championship.
The latter victory saw followed with different headlines a day later when public records showed he had filed for divorce from his wife, Erica, in the days leading up to the PGA Championship.
The couple later reconciled but McIlroy didn’t win again until Sunday, the year surely remembered most by his runner-up finish to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open, where he bogeyed three of the final four holes including missed short putts at the 16th and 18th holes.
McIlroy also had runner-up finishes at the Irish Open and at the BMW PGA Championship, where he lost to Billy Horschel in a playoff.
He now has 19 DP World Tour wins, including three at the DP World Tour Championship, to go along with 26 PGA Tour victories. Among them are four major championships.
Matching Ballesteros was all but assured as his nearest challenger, Thriston Lawrence, needed to win the tournament in order to catch McIlroy.
“It’s really cool,” McIlroy said. “I think everyone knows what Seve means to European golf, to Ryder Cup players. In the European Ryder Cup locker room, all we have are quotes of Seve. We have a changing room with Seve’s shirt from ’95, the last Ryder Cup he played.
“He means so much to European golf, and for me to be mentioned in the same breath, I’m very proud.”
McIlroy said he is looking forward to some down time. He is scheduled to play in the one-day Match in Las Vegas next month with partner Scottie Scheffler against LIV Golf stars DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka. He is not expected to resume his schedule until late January, when he defends his Dubai Desert Classic title.
The tournament also decided the top 10 players not already exempt who earned PGA Tour cards for 2025, led by Højgaard, who will join his twin brother, Nicolai, in America next year.
Others to achieve the playing privileges if they wish to take them were Lawrence, Paul Waring—who won last week in Abu Dhabi—Jesper Svensson, Niklas Nørgaard, Matteo Manassero, Thorbjorn Olesen, Rozner, Rikuya Hoshino and Tom McKibbin.
McKibbin, 21, is from the same club in Holywood, Northern Ireland, where McIlroy played his early golf.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy's Year of Near-Misses and Personal Strife End on a Winning Note.
