Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland (left) receives the winner’s trophy from Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum after winning the final round of the 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic yesterday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

AFP/Dubai

World number one Rory McIlroy produced a masterclass of how to protect a lead on the final day as he won his second Dubai Desert Classic title yesterday, matching the lowest winning score in the history of the tournament.
At the Majlis course of Emirates Golf Club on Sunday, the Northern Irishman was solid in his final-round two-under par 70.
And even though it was his worst round in four days, it was enough for his 10th European Tour title. It was his fourth win in his last seven starts on the European Tour. The other three finishes were second places.
McIlroy tallied 22-under par 266, matching the four-day efforts of Thomas Bjorn in beating Tiger Woods in 2001 and Stephen Gallacher in 2013.
Starting the day four shots ahead, McIlroy finally won by three shots over Sweden’s Alexander Noren (65), who is on a medical exemption after playing just two tournaments in 2014 because of a tendonitis of wrist.
Gallacher made a spirited defence of his title, eventually finishing third at 16-under par, while there was a five-way tie for fourth place at 273, including world number 12 Martin Kaymer and France’s Gary Stal, the man who took full advantage of the German’s final round collapse in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago.
McIlroy, who is now expected to take to the stands in a Dublin court next week in his ongoing legal battle with his former management company, did not let anything waver his focus.
His only mistake of the day came on the par-3 seventh hole, where he pulled his tee shot left of the green, and then hit a poor chip 15 feet short of the hole and missed the putt.
Cruise control
But apart from that, the world number one never got into much trouble, kept his ball in play and one solid par followed the other.
“It’s been a fantastic week for everyone who played here this week and it’s just nice to get my name on that trophy again,”
“It was a bit of a cruise control out there. I knew if I just went out there and played a solid round of golf, especially getting here today and seeing that the breeze was up, it was going to be difficult for anyone to really put together a low score, especially on that front nine,.
“So, I just wanted to keep my ball in play and not really make any mistakes and try and pick off some birdies when I could on the par 5s and stuck to my game plan very well. Made good, committed, aggressive swings to where I wanted to hit it.”
The victory is expected to take McIlroy to 11.66 points on top of the world rankings, and would extend his lead over second-placed Henrik Stenson by almost four average points.
Noren was absolutely thrilled with his performance, which comes at the back of a ninth place finish in Doha last week.
“I started well but didn’t really play that well around nine. And then I got a birdie on 10, which felt nice. A little bit slower after that but then really got it going. So it was just a lovely day, lovely finish and lovely start,” said Noren, who closed with three birdies in his last four holes.
“It was an amazing day, amazing week. I missed it so much, this feeling of some pulse and the nervousness.”
The European Tour next heads to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur next week.

Quiros thrives in Dubai after 11,000 kilometre return trip
DUBAI: Spain’s Alvaro Quiros undertook an 11,000 kilometre (6,800 mile) round trip for a sinus surgery and then recorded his lowest round in 16 months, thanks to the fifth hole-in-one of his career on the final day of the Dubai Desert Classic yesterday.
Quiros, who turned 32 on January 21, found the bottom of the cup at the par-three, 172 metre (188 yards) fourth hole en route to an eight-under-par 64 and the clubhouse lead at 12-under on the Emirates Course.
“Anthony Wall was hitting before me and we saw the ball land a meter away from the hole and when I hit my shot, a 150 metre three-quarter 8-iron, we saw the ball pitch but didn’t see the ball,” Quiros told reporters.
“Because there was no people around, given we were out early this morning, and also the sun was into our faces we didn’t know it was in the hole until I walked onto the green.
“That’s what happens when you don’t play that good in the first three rounds and they put you out early, so there was no people to clap,” he quipped.
A week ago, Quiros battled continuing nose bleeding in sharing 23rd place in the Qatar Masters and was observed with tissue paper in his nostrils and also a small clamp-like device over the bridge of his nose.
“I had to fly back from Qatar to Spain on Saturday night after the event and I had nasal surgery on Sunday, and I left Spain on Tuesday and arrived here in Dubai Tuesday afternoon. “I was just struggling to breathe properly and that’s why my nose was bleeding so much.”
“I am still having a lot of liquid coming out of my nose but the bleeding has stopped.”