While he didn’t leave Dubai with any hardware, at least Rory McIlroy closed out his year in style at the DP World Tour Championship.
McIlroy finally got things going at Jumeirah Golf Estates, shooting a front-nine 30 en route to a closing 65 that left him in a tie for ninth, five shots behind Matthew Fitzpatrick.
“Wasn’t meant to be,” McIlroy told reporters. “Didn’t quite keep that momentum going into the back nine, but still a good 65 to finish. Played nicely and looking forward to a few weeks off.”
McIlroy had only a slim chance to win the season-long Race to Dubai title after skipping each of the first two Final Series events, but those hopes went out the window when the Ulsterman surprisingly opened with a 75 for his first over-par score on the Earth Course in 29 tries.
“Sort of looking back on it, that’s the day I’m going to rue,” McIlroy said. “If I had even shot something around level par, 1 under, I would have been right in the tournament. But these things happen, and I played well for the remaining three days. At least I redeemed myself a little bit.”
The season-long title instead went to Henrik Stenson, who played the final round alongside McIlroy and carded a matching 65.
McIlroy has now played his final competitive round of the year, and won’t tee it up again until the South African Open in mid-January. In the interim, he’ll return to Dubai for a New Year’s vacation as well as an earlier trip to do some equipment testing, but his next stop will include a return to the U.S. to carve some turkey with fiancee Erica Stoll.
“Thanksgiving next week is a big deal in our household now,” he said. “So Thanksgiving in New York, then back home to Northern Ireland for a couple weeks.”