Rory McIlroy has described his strong performance at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as a “huge confidence booster” as he looks to win his seventh Race to Dubai title.
McIlroy arrived at the Rolex Series event with a 441-point advantage over Marco Penge in the DP World Tour’s season-long standings, extending that lead to 767 points after a strong finish at Yas Lynx.
The world No. 2 player had one eagle and eight birdies on the final day for a bogey-free score of 62, the lowest round in DP World Tour history, and ultimately finished in a tie for third place.
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Highlights from Day 4 of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as Aaron Rai defeated Tommy Fleetwood in a play-off
McIlroy finished a shot behind play-off winners Aaron Rye and Tommy Fleetwood, and the Northern Irishman is happy to extend his Medal of Merit advantage ahead of the final race of the season, the DP World Tour Championship.
“It was a short but great day of golf and a great end to a great week,” McIlroy said. “It’s also a great way to get ready for Dubai next week.
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“I tried to hold my foot and get as many birdies as possible because I’m trying to not only win this tournament, but give myself as much cushion as possible heading into next week (DP World Tour Championship).”
McIlroy enters the DP World Tour Championship as the defending champion, following his two-shot victory over Rasmus Hoygaard last year. McIlroy, 36, has previously won the tournament in 2012 and 2015 and has finished in the top five on the last nine occasions at Dubai’s Jumeriah Golf Estate.
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Highlights from the final round of the 2024 DP World Tour Championship, with Rory McIlroy’s emotional win
“I really like that golf course,” McIlroy said. “It really suits me. I think it probably suits me a little bit more than this course (Yas Links) in terms of what you have to do from tee to green.”
“This week gave us a lot of confidence after a few weeks off and hopefully we can do more of the same after Thursday.”
2,000 points will be awarded to the winner of the final race of the season, but McIlroy remains a strong favorite to cap off his Race to Dubai victory and win the Harry Vardon Trophy for the fourth consecutive year.
The success of the Race to Dubai means that McIlroy joins Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Order of Merit titles, leaving Penge and Tyrrell Hatton (1,721 points behind in third place) the only players able to overtake McIlroy in the standings.
In the final round of 75 in Abu Dhabi, Hatton finished tied for 41st, 14 strokes behind the winner, and further behind McIlroy, while Penge shot a 63 on Sunday to regain a share of ninth place and keep his Race to Dubai hopes alive.
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“We played great all week,” Penge said. “My putter was really cold until today (Sunday). Yesterday (Saturday) I was mentally bad and destroyed myself a little bit, so I wanted to come out and fight back and that’s what I did.”
“The first three days I was just trying to attack as hard as I could. Today (Sunday) I went back to the process, being aggressive inside 150 and taking my medication outside of that. Mentally, me and my caddy were great today, and it’s good to be able to go into next week aiming for that score.”
Who will win the race to Dubai? Watch the DP World Tour Championship live all week on Sky Sports. Live coverage will begin on Sky Sports Golf from 7am on Thursday. Stream DP World Tour and more without a contract.
