“I probably just left myself a bit too much to do”

Rory McIlroy admits that his game management let him down this week but is optimistic for the next few tournaments after he claimed his twelfth successive top-10 finish at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

McIlroy closed with his best round of the week as a 66 saw him climb into a share of fourth place on twelve-under, three shots shy of winner Tyrrell Hatton.

McIlroy trimmed a halfway gap of nine shots to just five heading into the final day but he left himself with too much to do to scoop a third straight Dubai title and a fifth overall.

“That’s pretty cool. Yeah, I probably just left myself a bit too much to do after three days. I had chances, and I was burning the edges.

“Felt like I putted pretty well without anything going in and then today, didn’t really feel like I played that differently the way I played the last few days. I just held a couple of putts and made a couple of good up-and-downs when I had to. I feel like I got progressively better as the week went on, which bodes well for obviously the next few weeks.”

This week was the four-time major winner’s first competitive outing since winning the DP World Tour Championship and sixth Race to Dubai title in November and he felt over the course of the four rounds his game management wasn’t quite up to scratch as the likes of Hatton and Canter arrived after shaking off any signs of rust at last week’s Team Cup.

“Probably just a little bit of game management. I think when you take a few weeks off and you come back to play like a really good tournament setup like this, I look at some flags on greens and like, whoa, that’s quite a bit further to the right than I thought it would be or that’s quite a bit further to the left.

“When you’re playing at home and the greens are in the middle of the greens, it just gives you a different visual. Then you get out here, and your aim lines start to become a little different. So.

“I think playing a week like this, it sort of gives me a good appreciation for what I need to do the next few weeks.”

Tom McKibbin finished a shot behind McIlroy thanks to a final round of 69 as a closing par after finding the water off the tee preserved his position in sixth.