DUBAI, United Arab Emirates– Tommy Fleetwood gained from 2 substantial mistakes on the back 9 from Rory McIlroy and produced his own strong surface to win the Dubai Invitational following a back-and-forth final-round battle Sunday.
McIlroy had currently three-putted from 2 feet at No. 14 by the time he reached the 18th tee with a 1-shot lead over Fleetwood and pulled his drive into the water.
Fleetwood followed that by driving into the middle of the fairway and sent his method to 16 feet, well inside McIlroy after the world No. 2 needed to take a drop.
McIlroy missed his winding putt up the hill, and Fleetwood made his own to shoot 67 for 19-under 265 total, protecting a very first win because the Nedbank Golf Obstacle in November 2022.
He was a stroke clear of McIlroy (67 ), who connected for 2nd location with Thriston Lawrence (64) in the very first European trip occasion of 2024.
” Very first week back out, I believe you’re going to anticipate a few of those careless errors,” McIlroy stated. “Sadly for me, those errors came at the incorrect time today.”
McIlroy smiled and provided Fleetwood a huge hug on the 18th green after losing out on a very first success because the Scottish Open in July. They are friends and were playing partners at the Ryder Cup in 2015.
” It’s constantly extremely unique when you have fun with among your buddies, among the very best gamers on the planet, challenging yourself versus those guys,” the 15th-ranked Fleetwood stated. “Rory’s been a really, extremely encouraging impact on me over the past. … I have actually viewed him do remarkable things down the stretch in golf competitions, and today was my turn.”
McIlroy, the world No. 2, began the day a stroke back from Fleetwood and was 3 behind after the 10th hole. However 4 birdies in a five-hole stretch– on either side of that abstruse three-putt on the par-3 14th– put him into a tie with Fleetwood.
After a careless bogey at No. 16, Fleetwood holed a birdie putt from 30 feet at the 17th to remain within 1 shot of McIlroy and after that profited from his playing partner’s worst swing of the day on the 18th tee.
” I have actually had a lot of times where someone has actually ended up well versus me when I have actually not rather done enough, and today was my turn to stroll through the door today,” stated Fleetwood, who resides in Dubai. “It was simply among those things. You discover each time you play, excellent, bad, whatever it is, you constantly must discover each time you play. The more you put yourself in these positions, you keep determining who you wish to be as a gamer when you’re out there, what mindset you wish to have, how you wish to play, and simply pursue that, and today was an excellent day for me.”