Tournament: Hero Dubai Desert Classic
Race to Dubai: Tournament 6 of 42
International Swing: Tournament 1 of 7
Venue: Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Prize Fund: US$9,000,000
ASAP Transcript Link: Click here
Hashtag: #HeroDubaiDesertClassic #RolexSeries
Tyrrell Hatton secured an eighth DP World Tour title and a record-equalling fifth Rolex Series victory by capturing the Hero Dubai Desert Classic trophy after an epic tussle with Daniel Hillier.
Ryder Cup star Hatton went into the final round one behind New Zealand’s Hillier but ground out a three-under-par 69 to finish on 15 under at Emirates Golf Club. That was one clear of Hillier, who signed for a 71, with Laurie Canter, who shot a 68, third on 13 under.
The duo traded blows throughout the day with neither taking full advantage and the lack of birdies at the top of the leaderboard briefly offered hopes to the chasing pack, including Canter, Shaun Norris, Niklas Norgaard and defending champion Rory McIlroy.
However, Hatton took a huge stride towards victory with a brilliant wedge approach to the 16th that set up a tap-in birdie.
There was still time for a few jitters on the 18th. Hatton unsurprisingly laid up but a conservative approach to the back of the green in order to take the water out of play left him with a 45-foot birdie effort.
Hillier had gone for the green in two and went over the back, but made a nine-footer for birdie to leave Hatton a testing five-footer for the win, which he duly converted to claim the iconic Dallah trophy and equal Jon Rahm’s five Rolex Series titles.
McIlroy saved his best for last as a 66 took him to 12 under alongside Norgaard, with his tied-fourth finish representing his 11th consecutive top-ten in this event, a run stretching back to the first of his four wins in 2009.
Players quotes
Tyrrell Hatton: It feels amazing. I said earlier in the week, this is one of the events that you would like to have on your CV. It’s such an iconic event for the DP World Tour. To add my name to the list of the amazing champions that have been before me, and yeah, to have my name on that trophy now, yeah, it’s a dream come true.
I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous on the back nine. I guess I just maybe wanted it a bit too much. I knew the position I was in, and a little bit scruffy down the last. But yeah, to see that putt go in felt amazing. Just so happy to win.
Like I said earlier in the week, this event and the four Majors this year are massive for me to try and earn as many points as I can to try and be an automatic qualifier (for the Ryder Cup). This is a big step in the right direction. So happy with that, and looking forward to the rest of the year.
Daniel Hillier: It’s bittersweet, that’s for sure. I didn’t have my best today obviously but I fought hard all day. Yeah, just barely gave myself a chance down the stretch. Hats off to Tyrrell. He was pretty solid down the stretch there. He’s class. Well done to him.
I think the course suits me but yeah it was an amazing week. I do think that I can compete when I’m on and hopefully I can come back and do better.
One of my goals is to get off to a better start than I did the last couple of seasons. Kind of been playing catchup from the second half of the year, and yeah, it’s just nice to start off solid and come back here and have one of my best performances.
Laurie Canter: I’m happy. That’s the best I played all week today. Hit a lot of really good shots to tough pins. I had a lot of kind of looks at birdie and felt like I hit good putts today. Just a couple misreads.
Great start to the year. Competed all week. Tyrrell is obviously a world-class player. I had a chance, and yeah, I’ll keep doing that, knock on the door, so to speak. I’d love to get a Rolex Series win. They are such good events, and especially here, I think having this one on the C.V. would be epic. Keep grinding away and hopefully have a chance at some point to win another one.
Rory McIlroy: I probably just left myself a bit too much to do after three days. I had chances, and I was burning the edges.
Felt like I putted pretty well without anything going in and then today, didn’t really feel like I played that differently the way I played the last few days. I just held a couple of putts and made a couple of good up-and-downs when I had to. I feel like I got progressively better as the week went on, which bodes well for obviously the next few weeks.
Probably just a little bit of game management. I think when you take a few weeks off and you come back to play like a really good tournament setup like this, I look at some flags on greens and like, whoa, that’s quite a bit further to the right than I thought it would be or that’s quite a bit further to the left.
I think playing a week like this, it sort of gives me a good appreciation for what I need to do the next few weeks.Final round scores
273 T HATTON (ENG) 71 65 68 69,
274 D HILLIER (NZL) 68 65 70 71,
275 L CANTER (ENG) 68 68 71 68,
276 N NORGAARD (DEN) 71 68 71 66, R MCILROY (NIR) 70 71 69 66,
277 S NORRIS (RSA) 69 67 72 69, T MCKIBBIN (NIR) 70 69 69 69,
278 D MICHELUZZI (AUS) 65 73 75 65, G MIGLIOZZI (ITA) 66 73 70 69,
279 R NEERGAARD-PETERSEN (DEN) 72 71 70 66, P REED (USA) 70 69 73 67, D FRITTELLI (RSA) 73 68 67 71, R FOX (NZL) 68 70 69 72,
280 R GOUVEIA (POR) 65 72 74 69, R H?JGAARD (DEN) 71 66 72 71,
281 E FERGUSON (SCO) 67 65 74 75,
282 J GUMBERG (USA) 72 71 71 68, M LEE (AUS) 71 66 73 72, R MACINTYRE (SCO) 71 69 70 72, C HILL (SCO) 67 74 67 74,
283 J KRUYSWIJK (RSA) 73 70 73 67, T FLEETWOOD (ENG) 71 68 74 70, K NAKAJIMA (JPN) 68 72 73 70, J GUERRIER (FRA) 69 73 71 70, J SCHAPER (RSA) 71 73 67 72, J SCRIVENER (AUS) 67 69 74 73,
284 C SYME (SCO) 71 70 76 67, J LUITEN (NED) 72 70 74 68, M JORDAN (ENG) 71 73 72 68, A BJ?RK (SWE) 71 71 71 71,
285 F LAPORTA (ITA) 72 72 71 70, M ARMITAGE (ENG) 71 72 71 71, I CANTERO (ESP) 70 70 73 72, S S?DERBERG (SWE) 74 70 68 73, T OLESEN (DEN) 70 67 74 74, M LORENZO-VERA (FRA) 67 74 70 74,
286 P SUMMERHAYS (AM) (USA) 70 71 75 70, J GIRRBACH (SUI) 72 71 73 70, A BHATIA (USA) 69 73 73 71, A KNAPPE (GER) 76 66 72 72, T CLEMENTS (ENG) 68 70 74 74, C JARVIS (RSA) 68 72 72 74, A SCOTT (AUS) 71 71 69 75, J VEERMAN (USA) 68 70 72 76,
287 D RAVETTO (FRA) 68 76 76 67, R WILLIAMS (RSA) 68 69 80 70, B WIESBERGER (AUT) 69 71 77 70, R LANGASQUE (FRA) 74 69 73 71, M KIEFFER (GER) 70 74 71 72, R RAMSAY (SCO) 70 71 73 73, M WALLACE (ENG) 70 72 70 75,
288 K APHIBARNRAT (THA) 70 71 75 72, D BRADBURY (ENG) 71 70 75 72, M SCHNEIDER (GER) 70 73 73 72, T VAILLANT (FRA) 72 72 72 72, L DE JAGER (RSA) 69 70 73 76, H LI (CHN) 70 71 70 77,
289 A SULLIVAN (ENG) 70 73 75 71, M SIEM (GER) 70 71 76 72, A GARCIA-HEREDIA (ESP) 72 68 76 73, A OTAEGUI (UAE) 73 71 72 73, N ELVIRA (ESP) 72 68 75 74, E SMYLIE (AUS) 74 68 72 75, R MANSELL (ENG) 70 69 74 76,
290 J DANTORP (SWE) 70 74 74 72, N H?JGAARD (DEN) 72 72 72 74, J SMITH (ENG) 72 72 70 76,
291 J KO (FRA) 73 69 78 71, A HIDALGO (ESP) 71 71 75 74, J DEAN (ENG) 72 72 72 75, A BRESNU (AM) (MAR) 73 69 72 77,
292 N COLSAERTS (BEL) 70 74 72 76, D FORD (AM) (USA) 65 75 70 82,
293 J DE BRUYN (GER) 71 68 79 75, U COUSSAUD (FRA) 73 67 77 76, D GAVINS (ENG) 70 74 72 77,
296 F ZANOTTI (PAR) 75 69 78 74, S BAIRSTOW (ENG) 72 71 73 80,
302 G FORREST (SCO) 72 71 76 83,
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145 J PARRY (ENG) 74 71, D BROWN (ENG) 75 70, J WINTHER (DEN) 73 72, P HARRINGTON (IRL) 70 75, D FICHARDT (RSA) 72 73, A PAVAN (ITA) 73 72, G GREEN (MAS) 72 73,
146 Y KATSURAGAWA (JPN) 70 76, A MERONK (POL) 73 73, T PIETERS (BEL) 71 75, T LAWRENCE (RSA) 71 75, J RAHM (ESP) 69 77, G COETZEE (RSA) 73 73, S CROCKER (USA) 71 75, C SHINKWIN (ENG) 69 77, T AIKEN (RSA) 76 70,
147 J CAMPILLO (ESP) 75 72, M SCHWAB (AUT) 72 75, D VAN DRIEL (NED) 73 74, F LACROIX (FRA) 73 74, S JAMIESON (SCO) 70 77, A WU (CHN) 74 73, D BURMESTER (RSA) 73 74, B STONE (RSA) 69 78,
148 Y PAUL (GER) 76 72, R JOHNSTON (USA) 73 75, A FITZPATRICK (ENG) 74 74, A WILSON (ENG) 73 75, N KIMSEY (ENG) 75 73, M BALDWIN (ENG) 71 77, V HOVLAND (NOR) 75 73, P WARING (ENG) 70 78,
149 R FISHER (ENG) 71 78, L DONALD (ENG) 77 72, M ELVIRA (ESP) 71 78, S SHARMA (IND) 76 73, A SADDIER (FRA) 73 76, S FORSSTR?M (SWE) 71 78,
150 D WHITNELL (ENG) 72 78, A DEL REY (ESP) 75 75, V AHLAWAT (IND) 74 76,
151 A COCKERILL (CAN) 76 75, J WALKER (USA) 74 77,
152 R VAN VELZEN (RSA) 78 74,
153 M KINHULT (SWE) 78 75,
154 P LARRAZ?BAL (ESP) 75 79,
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OUT O STRYDOM (RSA) RT ,
