DUBAI – Rory McIlroy is still leading the pack in Dubai despite his seemingly unsatisfactory performance. Rinse, repeat; rinse, repeat. In this country, it feels inevitable.
That’s equally impressive, but what you see from McIlroy in this game is the same as in this part of the world, where he called Dubai home early in his career. After winning the DP World Tour Championship last fall, McIlroy remained tied for the lead through 54 holes and won his third consecutive Dubai tournament. As such, he is the favorite for a fourth consecutive Dubai event. Only Tyrrell Hatton (one shot behind) can hinder him, and a victory for Hatton might not be enough.
McIlroy has shown some moments of inadequacy (and frustration) this week — half-offs, half-offs, like the putts he’d hit on the greens on Saturday afternoon — but the inevitability of his game now looks like a 67 or 68 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. His last seven rounds here are:
68-69-66-69-69-69-67
He admitted that when he wasn’t playing his best, he would try to “piece together” parts of the court and even used his “scoring skills” to score below 70 points in Friday’s game. When his putting started to falter on Saturday — missing multiple three-foot putts on the first few holes — he let it do something to him. But ultimately his long game thrived on a pitch that emphasized it.
On Sunday he will compete with Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, a young Dane who has zero career wins at this level. They were followed by six other players, namely Tommy Fleetwood and Hatton, all of whom seemed to be playing the best golf of their lives. You could easily say the same thing about some of the other one-shot comebackers, like Lauri Kanter and rookie Angel Ayoola. The best golf of their livesit seems. Against McIlroy on this course, it might not matter.
Perhaps the best example is the last one – a par 5 uphill where it’s all about location. After a good half of the day’s driving, McIlroy spread his shot to the right, leaving the ball on the imported maroon wood chips that surround much of the grass on the Earth Course. From there he pitched an 8-foot pitch and holed it, ending an otherwise uneventful day and the Dubai tournament almost 24 hours early.
As for his closest rival for the award, McIlroy isn’t giving him much thought.
“I focus on myself,” he said. “If I go out and play golf that I know I’m capable of, especially around this golf course, I know everything is going to be fine.”
