Breakthrough win for 19-year-old from Belfast

McIlroy survives late

wobble to score first

European Tour victory

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE
Northern Ireland teenager Rory McIlroy held his nerve to win a first professional title at the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic by one stroke from Englishman Justin Rose tpday.
The 19-year-old from near Belfast carded a final round two-under-par 70 to finish at 19 under and seal victory as Rose fell just short after five under 67 at Emirates Golf Club.
McIlroy led by six with six to play after reeling off four straight birdies from the ninth but three bogeys in three holes saw Rose move to within one of his playing partner standing on the final tee.
Former Order of Merit winner Rose had a chance to force at least a play-off with a 15-foot birdie putt at the last but missed, allowing McIlroy to roll home a four-foot par putt for his European Tour breakthrough.
The win elevates McIlroy to 14th in the world and makes him the seventh youngest winner in European Tour history.
Dubai-based Swede Henrik Stenson (67) finished third at 17 under, with Robert Karlsson (65), Martin Kaymer (67) and Paul Casey (68) a further shot adrift in fifth

No, I'm not as good as Tiger Woods, says Rory

REPORT FROM THE KALEEJ TIMES ONLINE

Looking back to the final stretch, Rory McIlroy said: “You know, you watch it on TV, and you see guys coming down the stretch with a four or five-shot lead, and you think it’s easy, and it’s not. You still have to play shots, and you still have to hole the putts. I got myself into a great position, middle of the back nine, and then let a few shots slip and Justin birdies a couple, as well, so I fought back. It was nice to just hold it together on the last and get a great up-and-down for the victory.”
On what was going through his mind after the three bogeys, McIlroy said: “I went to the 18th tee knowing that I still had a one-shot lead, so, I knew Justin needed to birdie it. After the tee shot, I never thought that I was going to make a bogey. I hit a perfect lay-up shot, and he just hit his through the fairway. And I hit my third shot, and adrenaline; I was pumped up and got the right hand into it and hit it about seven yards too far and left myself with a pretty tricky up-and-down.

"I managed to take a few deep breaths and compose myself. It was probably one of the best bunker shots I’ve ever played. To knock the putt in, as well, was absolutely—it was great.”
And runner-up Justin Rose was pleased for McIlroy and congratulated him. “He was. He just said he was very, very happy for me. He just said I deserved it and I fought well. It was nice for him to say that. You know, to hold off a field like this, as well, you look down the leaderboard and you have people like Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Colin Montgomerie; you have so many big names there and to be able to beat a field of that quality is very satisfying,” said McIlroy.
The win put him second in The Race to Dubai standings behind Sergio Garcia and also vaulted the world No 39 into the top 20. “Yeah, wow. Yeah (phew). I’ll have to reassess my goals. I got out with the same mindset every week and try to get myself into contention going into the back nine on Sunday, and that’s my goal every week.

"If I’m able to do that, it’s great. And I was able to do it two out of these three weeks in Abu Dhabi and here. I was saying it at the start of the week, as long as I put myself in these positions, sooner or later, I’ll be able to close one out and fortunately for me, I was able to do that this week,” he said.
Veteran players on the Tour have hailed the 19-year-old as the next ‘Tiger Woods’ and Woods won the Dubai Desert Classic last year with a 14-under total as compared to a 19-under by McIlroy. This led to talk that McIlroy was better than Tiger was at 19 years but Rory was at pains to stamp on that suggestion.

“Definitely not. This win definitely, probably put me—I’ve moved up a step and I want to try and just keep getting better and better. Your success only makes you more motivated to try to do better. I’ve realised that I’ve become a very good player and I just want to. I’ve got a lot of years to progress still and I just want to keep trying to practice harder and improve. And if I can do that, one day, hopefully, I’ll be able to compete with them.”
On the win, he said: “It’s definitely a burden off my shoulders or a monkey off my back. If I had not won today, having a six-shot lead, it would it have been pretty tough to take and it would have been hard to come back from that I think. But I was able to scrape in at the end and I was able to get it done.”
On the lessons learnt from the win, McIlroy said with a laugh: “Just to make pars when you are ahead,” but added on a more serious note, “Golf is such a funny game. You can be so far ahead and the guys still peg you back and that’s what happened. My lead was down to one and you sort of have to reassess. But all of these situations and all of these positions that I’ve put myself in, it’s all experience and I’m gathering it week-by-week.”

FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4 x 72)
269 Rory McIlroy (NIr) 64 68 67 70 (Euros 323,514).
270 Justin Rose (Eng) 68 66 69 67 (Euros 215,674).
271 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 65 71 67 (Euros 121,514)
272 Paul Casey (Eng) 68 68 68 689, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 65 71 71 65, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 70 67 68 67 (Euros 82,432 each).
275 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 70 67 66, Louis Oosthuizen (SAF) 68 65 68 74, Scott Strange (Aus) 69 71 66 69, Anthony Wall (Eng) 70 68 68 69 (Euros 47,268).
276 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 66 73 67, Richard Green (Aus) 71 63 69 73
277 Ross Fisher 72 69 67 69, Colin Montgomerie 70 70 70 67, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 68 75 64 (Euros 28,828 Euros each).
278 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 68 72 69, Anders Hansen (Den) 71 71 65 71, Oliver Wilson 71 68 73 66, Bradley Dredge 73 68 71 66
279 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 69 70 70, Thomas Levet (Fra) 73 67 66 73
280 Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 71 70 72, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 69 73 70 68
282 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 71 72 68, Graeme McDowell 70 72 72 68, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 70 72 72 68, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 72 72 69, Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 67 72 72, Gary Murphy 75 68 68 71, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 66 70 73 73, Mark Foster 69 74 66 73
283 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 69 72 69 73, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 72 68 72 71, Simon Dyson 71 68 73 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 67 68 72 76
284 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 69 73 69 73, Gary Orr 71 70 71 72 ,Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 70 72 72 70 (Euros 13,781 each).
285 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 74 69 70 72, Mark Brown (USA) 70 73 73 69, Lee Westwood 70 70 73 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 70 71 75, Simon Wakefield 73 70 69 73
286 Brett Rumford (Aus) 73 70 72 71, Stephen Dodd 71 69 73 73 ,Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 68 73 72
287 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 71 73 72, Richard Finch 71 71 71 74, Alastair Forsyth 71 70 75 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 71 73 73 (Euros 9,317 each).
288 Matthew Turner 70 72 71 75, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 67 72 76 73, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 70 71 76 71
289 Darren Clarke 74 69 72 74, Graeme Storm 68 70 77 74, Paul Broadhurst 70 70 72 77
290 Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 71 77 73, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 74 69 73 74
291 Paul Waring 67 73 77 74
292 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 71 76 73, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 70 76 73, Gareth Maybin 70 70 77 75, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 71 74 75
293 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 72 78 72
294 Lee Slattery 69 74 76 75, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 73 68 77 76
296 Paul Lawrie 68 75 74 79 (Euros 4,270).
301 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 70 72 82 77