Spain’s Nacho Elvira held his nerve to overcome the likes of Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Marcus Armitage, and Daniel Hillier during a roller coaster final round at the Dubai Invitational.
All five players were in contention on Sunday at Dubai Creek Resort, trading the lead amid a chaotic round of birdies and bogeys. Elvira held the overnight lead by two strokes, which he extended thanks to an opening birdie. However, Irishman Lowry swiftly cut his advantage with three birdies in his first four holes to tie for the lead.
McIlroy soon joined the pair at the top after a run of five birdies lifted him from a six-shots deficit. England’s Armitage and New Zealand’s Hillier also found themselves joining the rest at the summit with the leading Spaniard coming on to the back nine, just as Lowry edged into the solo lead by one shot. He held onto the advantage until the very last hole, but lost his chance when his final shot found water. Lowry double-bogeyed to drop back to 8 under, alongside McIlroy, Spain’s David Puig and France’s Julien Guerrier. Elvira was quick to capitalize on the Irishman’s late blunder, birdieing the 17th and making par at the last to seal a narrow one-shot victory in the tightly-contested event.
“It means the world,” the now three-time DP World Tour winner said. “If you told me on Tuesday that I’d be winning this tournament I’d have never believed you.
“It’s a dream come true, especially having the family here. I’ve always dreamed to have my kids walking up to me with a win and anything that happens after this, nothing compares to this.
“I knew at some point it was going to be difficult, especially with the great players playing in front of me. I somehow managed to make a par on ten, managed somehow to make a par on 11 and I guess I calmed down a little after this and stayed patient.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t nervous until the very last putt – the one-footer I had for the win. I knew what I needed to do, I knew I needed to be patient.
“I think there are so many positives from this week and I couldn’t be more happier.”
McIlroy had come close to birdieing the last to stay in contention, almost holing out from a greenside bunker, but he fell back to 8 under when he two-putted.
Speaking afterwards, the World No. 2 said: “I was just trying to get the most out of what I had. I didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. I wasn’t really focused on winning the tournament.
“I was just trying to piece it together and make some good swings and try to hit a few more fairways, which I did for the most part. Would have been nice to hit the fairway at the last to give myself a chance for birdie there. Overall it was a good first week back.
“I felt like I learned a lot of stuff about my game. I wasn’t very sharp, but hopefully I’m a little bit sharper going into next week than I was going into this week.”
Hillier claimed a solo second finish on 9 under, while McIlroy, Lowry, Puig and Guerrier settled for a four-way share of third place a shot further adrift.
What is the next event?
The next event on the DP World Tour schedule is the Hero Dubai Desert Classic taking place between 22-25 January at Emirates GC in UAE.