It was a bittersweet Sunday for Rory McIlroy at the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Estates’ Earth Course in Dubai, as the world number two claimed his seventh Harry Vardon Trophy as the leading player in the Race to Dubai but let double victory slip through his fingers as Matt Fitzpatrick staged a back-nine comeback to overtake the European number one and eventually win his third DP World Tour Championship in a playoff.
Playing alongside Dane, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in the final group, McIlroy, a four-time course winner and the defending champion, looked set to coast to victory number five in the season-ending Championship as he covered the opening seven holes in four-under and opened a two-stroke lead, and though Fitzpatrick, Laurie Canter, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg were all putting pressure on the world number two, another birdie on 11 saw him maintain his two-stroke lead facing into a closing seven holes where he’s traditionally made hay.
But despite winning four times in 2025, including the previously elusive Masters, two PGA Signature Events, and the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club, McIlroy has seldom made it easy and a bogey on 12 brought the chasing pack to within one again.
Fitzpatrick, who started the day one back, birdied three of his first five, but had appeared to have run out of steam as eight pars left him trailing by three before McIlroy’s bogey on 12, but the 2022 US Open champion found his groove again on 14, wedging to tap-in distance, then made another birdie from short range in 15 to tie the lead, but McIlroy, playing in the group behind, was fancied to birdie both of those and reassert himself at the top of the leaderboard.
But his long game deserted him, finding the left-hand rough on both holes and, despite giving himself birdie chances, watched the putts slide by on the right.
Taking 3-wood for safety on the par-4 16th, a minor pull saw him catch the lip of the fairway bunker and, in a stroke of misfortune, a rake impression directly behind the ball forced him to layup and cost him another bogey, and suddenly, from two ahead, he was one behind Fitzpatrick and Åberg, who tapped in a short birdie putt on 18 to take the clubhouse lead.
But resilience is now one of Rory’s leading characteristics, and an excellent approach to 17 left an uphill birdie putt that looked certain to find the bottom of the cup, but somehow lipped out. Fitzpatrick, from short of the green, completed a neat up-and-down at the last to move to -18 and end Åberg’s hopes, leaving McIlroy and Neergaard-Petersen, who’d staged a remarkable late comeback to eagle 14, birdie 15 and birdie 17, needing eagles on the closing hole to force a playoff.
There were shades of The K Club, when McIlroy found himself in a similar position and duly delivered, going on to win the playoff, and an aggressive line with Driver and a superb 5-wood left him with a 16-footer down the hill. Neergaard-Petersen had a putt on a similar line but from slightly longer range and missed it to the right before tapping in, clearing the stage for McIlroy. And the putt never looked like it was going anywhere other than dead centre.
Close friends, Fitzpatrick and McIlroy shared a good-natured embrace before McIlroy went to the scoring hut and they headed back to the 18th tee for the playoff.
Fitzpatrick, with the honour, hit 3-wood up the left side and though he missed the fairway, caught a good lie. McIlroy, with the memory of his pumped drive in regulation fresh in his mind, pulled the big stick again. But the hazard that runs up the entire length of the hole and splits the fairway in two was always in play, and his tee shot found it.
The Englishman laid up, and McIlroy, from a long way back, found the greenside bunker but faced a 45-yard bunker shot with water waiting if he went a little long. Catching it a little heavy, he came up 45-feet short, and when Fitzpatrick chipped close to give himself a three-footer for par, McIlroy needed to hole his longest putt of the week. This time, it was an ask too far, and after tapping in for bogey, he cleared the stage for Fitzpatrick to clean up and complete the win.
“It means the world,” Fitzpatrick said. “I struggled at the start of this year, obviously, and to turn it around in the summer like I did and have the Ryder Cup that I did… The Ryder Cup in particular, I feel like it’s hard to top, given everything, but, you know, the way that I played today – I feel like I really hit only one bad shot all day, so I’m just so, so proud of myself, you know, the effort that everyone puts in behind the scenes, my team and stuff.
“What a feeling, what a feeling.”
Fitzpatrick admitted that he expected McIlroy to hole the eagle putt in regulation.
“Of course you do, yeah,” he smiled. “He’s probably one of the only few that you know you’re going into a playoff with, you know. You’re two clear with one to play and you know you’re going to a playoff, so, you know, in typical Rory fashion, he did it again and obviously, you never like to see it end the way it did, but, I’m obviously delighted.”
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