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Golf World Reacts to Rory McIlroy’s Debacle on the 18th Hole at the 2022 Dubai Desert Classic

Published 01/30/2022, 3:47 PM EST

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via Reuters

Viktor Hovland won the 2022 Dubai Desert Classic after a Rory McIlroy debacle on the last couple of holes. Hovland came in from a six-shot deficit and won the event in the playoff against Richard Bland. Meanwhile, this was his second DP World Tour victory with three PGA Tour wins in his career so far. 

However, Rory McIlroy was in contention until the last few minutes. But sadly, he had an abysmal final two holes, which threw him out of contention. Notably, Hovland made an eagle on the 17th and a birdie on the 18th to finish with a score of -12. 

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Rory McIlroy misses a golden opportunity of winning the Dubai Desert Classic

Rory McIlroy had taken lead thru the front nine as the overnight leader Justin Harding fell behind with a triple bogey. Hence, Rory was looking all set to lift his third Dubai Desert Classic victory. However, Richard Bland and Viktor Hovland came in at the last moment and shared the lead with a score of -12. 

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But since they had completed their round, Rory had the advantage of two holes. The Northern Irishman was on the 17th hole where his drive went way left into thick and dry bushes. But thankfully, he avoided a bogey and completed the hole with a par. However, Rory missed a golden opportunity, as it was one of the straightforward holes in the course. 

via Reuters

Additionally, this errant tee shot affected him psychologically on the last hole as well. Rory decided to go with a 3-wood instead of a driver, which left him with around 267 yards off the pin location. Notably, there was water by the green, hence McIlroy had to decide whether to lay-up or go for the green. 

McIlroy decided to go for the green and ended up in the water, which meant he had blown off his chance of winning the Dubai Desert Classic. However, a few people believed if he had layed up and played it safe, Rory would have at least secured a place in the playoffs. So let us have a look at what fans think about Rory’s decision to go for the green. 

The golf world reacts to Rory going for the green on the 18th hole

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Written by:

Amey Kulkarni

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Amey Kulkarni is a Golf writer at EssentiallySports. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in mass media from HR College, Mumbai. Before joining EssentiallySports he used to write articles on Golf and Cricket on his personal blog cricgolf.
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