- Rory McIlroy has won the Race to Dubai for an eighth time, equalling Colin Montgomerie’s record.
- Tyrrell Hatton won the DP World Tour Championship, with McIlroy second after a closing 67.
- Eugenio Chacarra led the season-long standings before McIlroy birdied the 16th.
Rory McIlroy has drawn level with Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight European Number One titles after a final-day battle with Eugenio Chacarra at the DP World Tour Championship.
A closing 67 on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates left McIlroy second behind Tyrrell Hatton, who had taken a one-shot lead into Sunday. It was enough for a fifth successive Harry Vardon Trophy, after titles in 2012, 2014, 2015 and every year since 2022.
McIlroy and Chacarra began the round level on 5-under. McIlroy played in the fourth-to-last group, with the Spaniard, who went top of the rankings with his win in Delhi, following him round. Jon Rahm needed to win the tournament to have any chance but dropped shots at each of the first two holes.
Race to Dubai number eight. #DPWTC | #RolexSeries https://t.co/p6yDHJbo6n
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 15, 2026
How did the race swing?
McIlroy drove 361 yards down the 1st and holed from 12 feet for birdie. He lipped out at the 5th, then rolled in a 16-footer at the 6th to reach 7-under. Chacarra birdied the 3rd, saved par at the 5th and birdied the 6th.
A McIlroy birdie at the 7th put him ahead in the live standings for the first time, until Mikael Lindberg’s birdie at the 9th moved the Swede above him in the tournament. Chacarra birdied the 7th and 8th for three in a row. McIlroy saved par at the 8th and birdied the 9th to share second with Lindberg, one behind Hatton.
Chacarra then bogeyed the 9th and mishit his approach to the 10th to drop another shot. Birdies for Oliver Lindell and Francesco Laporta moved them alongside him and swung the race back towards McIlroy.
The Spaniard answered with two straight birdies, which put him ahead by 4,753.46 points to 4,753.36.
McIlroy regained the lead with a birdie at the 16th. He went at an awkward pin on the 17th, but his birdie putt slid by, and Chacarra kept his hopes alive with an up-and-down for par. At the last, McIlroy’s tee shot went right and hit a tree. He chipped out and made par.
With Lindberg out of position at the 17th, Chacarra needed an eagle at the last from himself or Lindberg, or for Victor Perez to play the last two holes in 3-under. Chacarra found a greenside bunker with his approach and made par. Neither Lindberg nor Perez produced the required finish. Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood embraced McIlroy in the clubhouse before Chacarra offered his congratulations.
A win for Gerry McIlroy
“I don’t really know what to say. Winning eight Order of Merits was never really in my list of goals when I was growing up,” said McIlroy. “I remember Monty being obviously a stalwart of the European tour, going to watch him at the World Match Play at Wentworth over the years. I remember playing with him for the first time at the London Club at the European Open in 2008. So to pull up alongside him and to win eight of these things, yeah, it means the world to me.”
He dedicated the title to his father Gerry, who is recovering from an operation in America.
“He’s been in the hospital for the last two months, underwent a huge operation at the end of September and he’s recovering well, thankfully,” McIlroy said. “When I left to come here to the Middle East, I went up to Cleveland to see him before I went and he said to me, ‘Go win the Race to Dubai’. Yeah, this one’s for him.”
“It was a good fight. I just came out short. That’s the beauty of golf,” said Chacarra. “Obviously, when you play with the best in the world and he’s played here 14, 15 times, you knew it was going to be tough, and he had a better day than I did.”
The Spaniard has earned a PGA Tour Dual Membership.
“Yeah, super excited. But I love the DP World Tour. It’s been so much for me and hopefully I can start good over there and come here as much as possible,” said Chacarra.
Related: Tyrrell Hatton Wins Sixth Rolex Series Title in Dubai
Simon Bale
Simon Bale is the publisher of Golf Today. A low single-figure handicap golfer, he was previously a major shareholder and course reviewer for Top100GolfCourses.com for over a decade, starting in 2010. Through this role, he developed extensive knowledge of golf course design and architecture while playing more than 300 courses worldwide.