Fourth Dubai Desert Classic for McIlroy, Sharma finishes T16

By Rahul Banerji

Rory McIlroy successfully defended his Hero Dubai Desert Classic title at the Emirates Golf Club on Sunday as Shubhankar Sharma brought in a best tied 16^th placing at the event.

McIlroy eclipsed the three-peat record he had shared with South Africa’s Ernie Els at the event and has now made a 2 and 1 start for the year after sharing second place at the Dubai Invitational last week behind Tommy Fleetwood.

On Sunday, the 34-year-old played steady golf for his 2 under 70 as closest rivals, South African Adrian Meronk (71) and Cameron Young (74) of the US rose and fell over the final round. 

A week after seeing his one-shot lead turn into a narrow loss on the 72nd hole at the Dubai Creek Resort, McIlroy gave the field played no glimpse of a chance other than a bogey on his back nine.

Till hole 12, the Northern Irishman had a clean card even as Young and Meronk stumbled, a press release said.

McIlroy (71-70-63-70) won with a 14-under 264 total with Meronk second on 13-under and Young a disappointing third at 12-under. If the first two days belonged to Young, the last day had McIlroy stamped all over it.

Hero MotoCorp executive chairman Dr Pawan Munjal was at hand to present the iconic Dallah Trophy to McIlroy for a second year running in front of a large audience that considers McIlroy as one of its own.

Rich haul

The player has been visiting the Emirates for 18 years and has six wins in Dubai. His latest win also means he has never finished outside the top ten at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in his last 11 appearances.

Shubhankar Sharma again played solidly on a course that had a challenging rough and penalised small errors to finish with a 2 under par 70.

Sharma’s 5 under total built on cards of 72, 71, 70 and 70 set up his best finish at the event – a share of 16^th place. His best in six previous starts was a T22 in 2021.

It was a good start to the season for Sharma, who had five birdies against three bogeys, two of which came on holes 15 and 16. The result will give him over a hundred points on the Race to Dubai Standings and in excess of 100,000 euros in earnings.

On the week and the season’s start, Sharma said, “I would say it is very positive and very gritty. I wasn’t feeling too well at the start of the week. So I had to be patient with the body and the game.

“I thought I managed myself and I know there wasn’t a very deep (low) round but this golf course isn’t the easiest – Rory did shoot nine under but he seemed to be playing a different golf course.

Consistent run

“This week I had four decent rounds of par or better. Every round could have been better by a couple of shots but that’s golfing for the first week. After knocking off the rust of December I’m quite happy with this week. Hopefully, this will get better.”

After the finish, McIlroy said, “Yeah, it’s really cool (the fourth title). You know, I didn’t really think about that during the course of the round. It was a tricky day, hard to get it close and make a ton of birdies.

“The pivotal point for me came on the 8th and 9th holes. Making two threes there, that sort of set me up to try to control it on the way in. 

“I made that one blunder on 13 but felt like I steadied the ship well over the last few holes, and yeah, it was one of those days where there wasn’t a ton of fireworks just because the course was so difficult but I held on as best as I could and thankfully no one around the top of the leader board made much of a run.”

Asked if coming back from 10 shots on the last 36 was one his best comebacks, he said, “I thought the way the golf course was trending, I thought two 67s would really have a chance. Obviously the 63 yesterday put me in a great position. 

“But yeah, I thought on Friday night 10-under for the weekend, I would have a really good chance to win. I shot 11, and ended up winning by one. Thankfully I played the golf I needed to and it was just incredible to get my fourth win here at the Emirates.

“It’s a great start to the season. I started well last year with the win here. That was a little more dramatic on the last green compared to this one.”

Also read: Shubhankar Sharma makes gains at Hero Dubai Desert Classic