Rory McIlroy held off Rasmus Højgaard to win the DP World Tour Championship by two shots, sealing his sixth Tour to Dubai crown.
The pair produced another strong final round at Jumeirah Golf Estates following their nine-under battle at the Irish Open in September.
It was Højgaard who came out on top at the time, but McIlroy took the spoils this time, making a spectacular tap-in for birdie on 16 and ending his season with a closing birdie on 18.
McIlroy’s three-under final-round 69 clinched his third DP World Tour Championship victory, having already won the title in 2012 and 2015.
On both occasions he also won the Race to Dubai title and finished the season as the DP World Tour’s number 1 for the sixth time overall, equaling Seve Ballesteros, with Colin Montgomerie’s record eight now in his hands. .
South African Thriston Lawrence was the only player earlier in the week who could have stopped McIlroy from winning the Race to Dubai, but he finished the tournament 30th at one under par, 14 shots behind McIlroy’s 15th. below.
Instead, McIlroy’s biggest challenge came from Højgaard, who was trying to follow his twin brother Nicolai, who won the DP World Tour Championship 12 months ago.
After bogeying the first hole, Højgaard bogeyed the second and seventh holes and joined McIlroy at the top of the leaderboard when the Northern Irishman birdied the ninth and 13th holes.
While McIlroy bogeyed two of the last three holes, Højgaard couldn’t hit any more shots as he chipped in, closing his round of 71 with 11 straight pars to finish tied for second at 13 under par. That was enough to push him past Lawrence into second place in the final qualifying race in Dubai, meaning he earned the first of the top 10 PGA TOUR cards on offer, having missed out by one place last year.
Nine other players have earned dual membership on the PGA TOUR: Lawrence (third in the Race to Dubai), Paul Waring (fifth), Jesper Svensson (tenth), Niklas Norgaard (11th).th), Matteo Manassero (12th), Thorbjørn Olesen (13th), Antoine Rozner (15th), Rikyua Hoshino (16th) and Tom McKibbin (18th).
For McIlroy, however, it was a fitting end to a season in which he won four world titles, including two on the DP World Tour in Dubai, and also won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January.
The four-time Major Champion’s consistency this season is underscored by his record eight-for-five finishes in 12 DP World Tour events in 2024, finishing runner-up four times, at the Dubai Invitational, US Open, Amgen Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship. .
McIlroy said: “It means a lot. I have been through a lot this year professionally and personally. It looks like the end is correct in 2024. I have been patient this year. I’ve had some close calls and I haven’t been able to do it in a lot of big tournaments, so to be able to get over the line is really important.”
“It’s great to win the sixth Race to Dubai title. I think everyone knows what Seve means to European golf and to Ryder Cup players. In the European Ryder Cup locker room, all we have are quotes from Seve. We had a locker room with Seve’s shirt from ’95, the last Ryder Cup he played. He means a lot to European golf and for me to be spoken to in the same spirit, I am very proud.”
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