Rory McIlroy Regains His Title as the European Tour Champion

McIlroy looked to have landed knockout blows on the terrific Andy Sullivan when taking to the 17th tee in the closing round of the DP World Tour Championship.

In contrast, Rose added a 66 to his opening 71 to finish seven under par alongside Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, just one shot behind early clubhouse leader Charl Schwartzel after the former Masters champion matched Wiesberger’s flawless 65.

Molinari’s impressive charge up the leaderboard began with a hole-in-one at the sixth, and after two bogeys he finished with a flourish, four birdies seeing him card a 68.

Luckily for the Irishman, the pair did not stay tied for long, as Rory made back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th, which included a 7-footer to stretch his lead to two shots.

But, after the leading group was made to wait on the 17th hole, McIlroy failed to draw his tee shot and splashed into the water.

“Andy is a fantastic player, he has all the shots, but he putted fantastically today as well”.

Willett put up a valiant fight, taking a share of fourth place with a two under par 70 in the final round, but could not stop the McIlroy juggernaut as the World Number Three returned to his magnificent best.

McIlroy missed three tournaments this summer, including the defence of his Open title at St Andrews, due to an ankle injury suffered playing football with friends and needed a controversial exemption to compete in the European Tour’s season finale despite not playing enough events.

Sullivan, who is the only three-time victor on the European Tour this season, was being roared on by 30 members of his golf club in Nuneaton and said: “Every putt that went in they were really cheering and it’s a big plus”. “If you make a bogey on a par five it’s never great, especially at the beginning of the round”, said Kaymer.

South Africa’s Branden Grace shot a 5 under 67 in the final round to finish third on 273.

McIlroy also said that to be European number one was his goal throughout the year.

Four times a runnerup this year when someone else simply played better, Kisner had a three-shot lead in the RSM Classic. “It obviously is. But there are more things important to me and one is collecting trophies, putting tournaments on my resume and I was able to do that this week”. “If my game is in this shape going into next year, I’d be very happy and feel I could do very well”.

“Just to come up head-to-head with someone of Rory’s quality, it was absolutely awesome and something that will stick with me for a long time going forward”.

McIroy ended with a total of 21-under 267 after starting the day on 15 under, one off England’s Sullivan. I don’t know what it was like to watch but it was incredible just to be a part of that front nine.