Matte Fitzpatrick claimed his third DP World Tour Championship after Rory McIlroy’s bid for a Dubai double finished in dramatic fashion at the last.
The Ryder Cup teammates were forced to play-off for the title after finishing the season-ending tournament tied on 18-under par.
Fitzpatrick played first and sent his drive into the rough to the left of the fairway. McIlroy then fired his own tee shot down the middle – but straight into the creek that runs down the centre of the 18th fairway on Earth Course.
The penalty stroke he invoked left enough of a cushion for Fitzpatrick to close out the win; as McIlroy made bogey, Fitzpatrick took the title with a par.
For the final hour of the tournament, it felt inevitable it would be decided by a play-off. Then when Fitzpatrick holed his birdie putt at the last, it seemed he was going to end just clear of the pack.
When he reached 18-under it meant Tommy Fleetwood, Laurie Canter and Ludvig Aberg could all pack their clubs away and vacate the driving range.
The trio had all stuck around because of the impending prospect of a multiplayer play-off, before Fitzpatrick’s birdie ruled them out.
Fitzpatrick had to wait for an age pondering his second shot into his 72nd hole. Up ahead, Angel Ayora was causing a backlog after chipping his third shot from the edge of the green into the creek.
Once Ayora finally finished up, Fitzpatrick had 274 yards to the flag, but ended up in the rough short and right of the green. He chipped that to five feet and drained the putt.
There was still a chance he could be equalled. In the final match out – one behind his game – both McIlroy and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen found the middle of the green with their second shots into 18.
Each required an eagle to move to 18-under and force a play-off with Fitzpatrick. Neergaard-Petersen putted first and missed by inches to the right of the hole.
McIlroy then reprised his heroics from the Irish Open earlier in the season, by rolling in his putt for eagle at the last to force the play-off.
In the end, it proved to be merely a stay of execution. Despite losing out on the tournament title, at least McIlroy could console himself with winning a seventh Race to Dubai title.
