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Rory McIlroy, seemingly with destiny in his own hands, endured a nightmare finish in his quest for a third Dubai Desert Classic title at the Emirates Golf Club where an over-ambitious 3-wood approach to the closing hole saw his ball finish up in a watery grave that saw him lose out on the chance of a €1.2 million payday.
Ultimately Viktor Hovland lifted the Rolex Series title in defeating Richard Bland with a birdie on the first hole of the play-off, after the pair had finished with a 72-hole aggregate of 12-under-par 276, but McIlroy’s closing bogey meant he missed out on a place in that shoot-out by a shot.
McIlroy’s fate, though, was sealed by his own actions in contributing to his disastrous finish.
On the drivable Par 4 17th, he’d produced a great escape to save par after hooking his drive into bushes; but even that feat of escapology was short-lived as his play of the 18th - and his decision to go for the green in two, hitting a 3-wood from 267 yards - proved to be the wrong decision as a poor strike saw the ball veer right only to plunge into the pond guarding the green.
McIlroy’s 71 for 277 gave him third place, but his play of those closing two holes contrasted sharply with that of Hovland who eagled the 17th, finding the green off the tee, and then birdied the last to make a dramatic late charge while Bland finished birdie-birdie.

Viktor Hovland won in Dubai after a play-off. Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/Getty


With one hand on the trophy as he teed-off on the 17th, McIlroy’s drive flew into a bush. Rather than take a penalty drop, he felt he could advance the ball sufficiently in an attempt to then get up and down to save par. “I sort of like this, I can get it out,” he said to caddie Harry Diamond, “100 percent, 100 percent.”
True to his word, McIlroy managed to make sufficient contact to find the rough short of the green and then chipped to 12 inches for a par.
What followed on Par 5 18th turned McIlroy from hero to villain in his own drama. Opting to hit 3-wood off the tee, he found the fairway and, although finding there was some mud on the ball, McIlroy decided to go for the green from 267 yards only to send it to a watery grave. Playing a wedge from the drop zone, he hit his fourth shot to 15 feet but the par putt to get into the play-off hit the edge of the cup and moved beyond it.
Hovland, who moved to number three in the world rankings, provided his own box office finish with a birdie-eagle-birdie run from the 16th and then produced another winning birdie over Bland in the play-off.
“I didn’t really think this was possible going in today. I knew I had to shoot a really low number but a lot of things had to go my way and thankful that it did . . . I’m pumping right now. It’s a little bit surreal, and it’s hard to kind of calm yourself a little bit but you’ve just got to rely on kind of all the shots that you hit and just go back to kind of what you know,” remarked Hovland.
Collated final round scores & totals in the DP World Tour Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic (Britain & Irl unless stated, par 72):
276 Viktor Hovland (Nor) 68 69 73 66 (won at the first extra play-off hole), Richard Bland 69 68 71 68
277 Rory McIlroy 71 66 69 71
280 Tyrrell Hatton 69 66 73 72, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 69 67 71 73, Justin Harding (Rsa) 65 68 71 76, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 69 68 71 72, Sam Horsfield 69 69 75 67
281 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 72 71 69, Padraig Harrington 70 70 69 72, Jordan Smith 72 69 69 71
282 Paul Casey 70 68 70 74, Tommy Fleetwood 67 71 69 75, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 74 69 72, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 70 69 76 67, Marcus Armitage 70 68 72 72, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 68 74 69 71
283 Collin Morikawa (USA) 68 73 71 71, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 73 70 70, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 67 73 73 70, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 69 74 70 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 66 70 72 75, Romain Langasque (Fra) 70 70 72 71
284 Shane Lowry 71 74 68 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 68 69 76
285 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 68 72 73 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 72 71 72, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 72 73 69 71, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 73 72 70 70
286 Ashun Wu (Chn) 75 70 69 72, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 70 70 76 70
287 Lee Westwood 69 69 71 78, Haotong Li (Chn) 73 70 73 71, Richie Ramsay 74 69 72 72
288 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den) 73 71 74 70, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 67 75 76 70, Johannes Veerman (USA) 71 74 72 71, Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 70 74 70 74, Matt Wallace 69 73 69 77, Justin Walters (Rsa) 69 72 77 70, Scott Jamieson 69 71 73 75, Matthias Schmid (Ger) 73 68 69 78
289 Grant Forrest 70 74 72 73, Daniel van Tonder (Rsa) 73 71 72 73, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 75 70 73 71, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 73 74 73
290 Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 70 73 78 69, Rafael Cabrera (Spa) 72 73 69 76, Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den) 73 71 70 76, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 71 73 72 74, Andy Sullivan 72 73 70 75, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 71 74 72 73, George Coetzee (Rsa) 70 72 71 77, Ross Fisher 71 72 74 73
291 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 71 74 69 77, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 72 73 69 77, Daniel Gavins 70 75 74 72, Josh Hill 70 74 69 78, David Law 70 74 77 70
292 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 73 72 73 74, Victor Perez (Fra) 73 72 73 74, John Catlin (USA) 72 69 76 75, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 75 69 72 76, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 71 72 76 73, Nicolai von Dellingshausen (Ger) 77 66 74 75
293 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 65 72 81 75, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 68 72 76 77, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 69 75 71 78, Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 71 72 75 75
294 Matthew Jordan 70 73 73 78, Sebastian Garcia (Spa) 68 76 74 76, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 67 73 81 73
295 Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 70 74 77 74, Laurie Canter 75 69 77 74
296 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 72 72 76 76
297 David Drysdale 74 70 76 77, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 74 69 76 78