Nacho Elvira captures Dubai title after Shane Lowry chips into water, doubles last

When Shane Lowry’s tee ball at the par-4 finishing hole Sunday at Dubai Creek left the clubface, Lowry led the Dubai Invitational by a shot. Lowry’s closest pursuer, Nacho Elvira, was in the group behind, facing a 7-footer for birdie. At worst, it seemed, Lowry would find himself in a playoff.

Instead, Lowry lost by two.

Elvira would roll in that putt at the penultimate hole to tie Lowry at 10 under. He’d then watch up ahead as Lowry fell apart, tugging a 149-yard approach from the second cut into the left greenside bunker and then shockingly, blasting out through the fairway and into, fittingly, the creek.

Lowry’s double bogey would drop him into a tie for third with Julien Gurrier, David Puig and Rory McIlroy, who used five straight birdies midway through his final round to briefly tie for the lead with four other names. Daniel Hillier’s round of the day, a 6-under 65 gave him solo second, a shot behind Elvira, who for the third time in the 38-year-old Spaniard’s DP World Tour career was a winner.

“I always dream of my kids walking up to me with a win,” said Elvira, a father of two. “Anything that happens after this is nothing but opportunities. … This is a dream come true, to have my wife and my kids here. It’s something I’ve dreamed of a lot of times, and I cannot believe this happened.”

Elvira entered Sunday two clear of the field before birdieing three of his first seven holes, a stark contrast to the 1-over golf he played on that stretch the day before. But then came the 6-foot par miss at the par-3 eighth and flubbed chip on the next that led to another bogey.

When Elvira rinsed his second shot at the par-4 10th, it appeared his chances of winning had unraveled. Elvira, however, didn’t fret, getting up and down for par from 100 yards. A hole later, he overcame an awkward stance against the lip of the fairway bunker to save par there, too.

“I’ve been in this position before and I feel like I’ve always tried to hold on to the score,” Elvira said. “And this time I knew that Shane and Rory were behind and some of the good players. I felt like I wanted to push a little bit to keep going and keep being aggressive.”

Turns out, Elvira didn’t need to do much down the stretch, only adding the birdie at No. 17. McIlroy left a 30-footer at the par-3 14th that would’ve given him six straight birdies and the solo lead a rotation short. He then bogeyed the last to end his threat. Lowry, who birdied three of his first four holes and later Nos. 13 and 15, missed a 10-footer for birdie at No. 17 before his disastrous close. Marcus Armitage co-led before bogeying No. 14 and, like Lowry, doubling No. 18.

“I wasn’t really focused on winning the tournament,” McIlroy said. “I was just trying to piece it together and make some good swings and try to hit a few more fairways, which I did for the most part. Would have been nice to hit the fairway at the last to give myself a chance for birdie there. Overall, it was a good first week back. I felt like I learned a lot of stuff about my game. I wasn’t very sharp, but hopefully I’m a little bit sharper going into next week than I was going into this week, I guess.”

While all this was going on, Elvira said he wasn’t paying attention to the leaderboards. It wasn’t until he turned around and saw the big board facing the greenside crowd on No. 18 that he knew he needed two putts from 20 feet just off the back of the green to win.

“To be honest, I wasn’t nervous until the very last putt, the 1-footer I had for the win,” Elvira said.

The victory, Elvira’s first since the 2024 Soudal Open, moves him to fourth in the Race to Dubai, behind 20-somethings Jayden Schaper, Puig and Kristoffer Reitan, who also has his full PGA Tour card.

“I’m going to keep playing these next few weeks and keep trying to build on the momentum that I have right now,” Elvira added, “and hopefully we can put ourselves throughout the year in more situations like this.”