Jon Rahm has prevailed at the DP World Tour Championship for the third time in his career, ensuring that Rory McIlroy ends the season at the top of the yearly rankings.
The Spaniard begun the week by heavily criticising the changes made to the World Golf Rankings system, which meant that the end-of-season tournament in Dubai was worth significantly less points than the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour which did not feature a top-10 player.
Nevertheless, that would have been at the back of Rahm's mind as he produced a final-round 67 to emerge victorious by two shots.
Although Rahm was aided by playing partner Matthew Fitzpatrick enduring his worst round of the week, the world number five hit six birdies on the way to completing a magnificent closing 18 holes on Sunday.
Rahm was not in a position where he could win the DP World Tour Rankings, and it meant that fourth place was good enough for McIlroy to retain his pre-tournament spot.
McIlroy knew that finishing ahead of Fitzpatrick would all but seal that achievement and three birdies on the first six holes of the back nine gave the Northern Irishman a comfortable run-in.
European Number One, confirmed ✅ #DPWTC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/Crvamsekbl
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 20, 2022
The world number one still had aspirations of a further late surge to threaten Rahm, but closing with three pars was never going to catapult him into title contention.
Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren shared second position in the tournament, the pair still finishing outside of the top 10 in the yearly rankings despite excellent weeks in the Middle-East.
Fitzpatrick birdied the last to finish in a share of fifth alongside Tommy Fleetwood, the pair ending up in fourth and fifth in the DP World Tour Rankings.
Second place went to Ryan Fox despite the New Zealander finishing his season with a 19th-placed finish, even though his 68 on Sunday was his best round of the week.
The top 10 in the tournament was completed by Rasmus Hojgaard, Adrian Meronk, Adri Arnaus and Jorge Campillo.
Darren Plant
