A third career victory at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic and a 15th for his career on the DP World Tour was in Rory McIlroy sights as he stood in the fairway on the 18th hole sites at Emirates G.C. Tied with Viktor Hovland and Richard Bland at 12 under for the tournament, McIlroy was 267 yards from the green on the par-5 finishing hole. A birdie would give him the victory, par would get him into a playoff.
It’s hard to think of 267 yards as an in-between distance, but that might have been the case for the 32-year-old Northern Irishman. TV cameras caught a smidge of mud on the ball, so going for it in two over the water that guards the front of the green looked trickier than usual. Still, McIlroy never seemed to wavier in thought from the 3-wood he took out of his bag to hit his second shot, even after having to wait roughly five minutes for the green to clear ahead.
McIlroy had already had to scramble for a par on the 17th hole after hitting his tee shot into scrub brush. Now, he’d have to somehow get up and down from the drop area to salvage a par once more.
Instead, McIlroy’s fourth shot left him a 14-footer and McIlroy lipped it out. The bogey had him close with a 71 and forced him to be a spectator as Hovland made a birdie on the first playoff hole to defeat Bland.