Aaron Rai held his nerve to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after beating Tommy Fleetwood on the primary play-off gap.
The 30-year-old sunk a birdie from simply over eight ft to emulate his solely earlier Rolex Sequence win on the 2020 Scottish Open – which was additionally a play-off win over Fleetwood.
Rai went into the ultimate spherical with a one-shot lead over Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard, and emerged with a complete of 263 after a topsy-turvy, five-under remaining spherical that included seven birdies and two bogeys.
He missed a 10-foot putt to win it on the final and see off Fleetwood, who had moved one shot clear with two to play after a birdie on the sixteenth, however in the end needed to accept parity after a six-under remaining spherical of 66.
Rory McIlroy left himself simply an excessive amount of to do, developing one shot brief in a tie for third place with Hojgaard, after a surprising 10-under remaining spherical of 62, comprising eight birdies and an eagle – his lowest ever spherical on the DP World Tour.
“I simply tried to maintain my foot down and make as many birdies as potential, realizing that I am making an attempt to win this event but additionally give myself the largest cushion potential going into Dubai subsequent week, as effectively,” McIlroy mentioned.
Hojgaard fired six birdies however his hopes of topping the leaderboard have been hit by a bogey on the twelfth. England’s Richard Mansell hit a superb remaining spherical 63 to complete tied for fifth place with Australia’s Daniel Hillier.
After his win, Rai mentioned: “It is arduous to sum up. I feel you are simply so targeted on taking part in the spherical and clearly simply making an attempt to remain in your zone. It is arduous to place into phrases in the mean time how this feels or how I will replicate on it.
“Nevertheless it’s simply superb to be stood right here. Tommy is an outstanding participant. He is a good higher particular person than he’s a participant and that claims so much.
“To play with him the final two days and be on the market with him was actually particular. So yeah, superb to be right here.”
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What’s subsequent?
The DP World Tour Play-Offs conclude with the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai reside on Sky Sports activities Golf and Sky Sports activities Essential Occasion from November 13 at 7am.
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