McIlroy Polishes off Victory at Dubai Desert Classic


Though he didn't card his fourth straight round in the 60s, Rory McIlroy really didn't need to as the 25-year-old Northern Irishman won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic by a comfortable margin.

McIlroy showed why he's the top-ranked player in the world by posting three birdies and a bogey for a 70 in an unthreatened final round at Emirates Golf Club to finish at 22-under 266, three strokes ahead of Denmark's Alex Noren.

His 22-under total - with rounds of 66, 64 and 66 before Sunday - matched the tournament record set previously by Thomas Bjørn and Stephen Gallacher, the latter of whom did it last year when he won the event.

The win was McIlroy's 10th on the European Tour; his first came in 2009 at the Dubai Desert Classic. "It's nice to be able to put my name on that trophy again," said McIlroy.

"It felt like I was coming second every time I was teeing it up so it was time for a change and obviously the only way I wanted to go was one better and thankfully I was able to do that today. I played very nicely all week; I did what I needed to do today. I didn't play quite as well as the first three days but I played a solid round of golf and kept my nose in front."

To illustrate what kind of a supreme player McIlroy has become, in his last seven European Tour starts he's won four times and finished runner-up in the three others. Since May 2014, he's accrued five titles, including two majors, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship.

McIlroy was aware that in recent European Tour events players with significant 54-hole leads stumbled on Sunday. "I felt like I was a little tentative the first few holes out there," said McIlroy, who started the final round four strokes up on Denmark's Morten Orum Madsen.

"I guess we've seen what can happen to big leads out there the last few weeks and I was conscious of that and making sure that I wasn't making any mistakes."

But ultimately that wasn't a concern as Madsen, playing alongside McIlroy in the final group, fell back after a triple-bogey on the first and never threatened again. Lee Westwood got within four strokes but couldn't sustain his fast early start.

Noren missed all of 2014 because of tendonitis so his second-place showing thanks to his closing 65 provides hope for the three-time European Tour winner. "It was an amazing day, an amazing week," said the 32-year-old. "I missed it so much - feeling my pulse and some nervousness, it's really nice.

"I never even thought of winning; (McIlroy is) playing so good. I was just trying to get a nice finish in, keep making birdies and try to stay up with the other guys. I was pretty unsure even two months ago if I was going to play again this early - it's tough when you don't know if the hand is holding up, and that's been a little bit of a problem, but it turned out better than I thought."

Gallacher ended up in third at 272, while sharing fourth were Gary Stal, Bernd Wiesberger, Andy Sullivan and Madsen. Tied for ninth were Thomas Aiken, Graeme McDowell, Robert Rock and Westwood.

After opening with rounds of 65 and 69 to rise up the leaderboard, American Peter Uihlein shot 70 and 71 over the weekend to end up tied for 13th at 275 with six others, including No. 2-ranked Henrik Stenson.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015006/leaderboard/index.html.