There’s a reason Rory McIlroy would be likely to accept UAE citizenship if it were on the table. He can tell the story of his whole professional life by this place.
“I have never been offered but if I were to be offered, I probably would,” McIlroy said during a tearful end to his season at the DP World Tour Championship in November.
“I lived here for four years. I was a resident. I love this part of the world. I always have. I was lucky enough to receive an invite to the Dubai Desert Classic in 2006 as an amateur, and I've been coming back to this region every year since.
“It’s been 18 pretty cool years. There's been a lot of fond memories along the way, and as long as this region continues to be an important part of the world of golf, I’ll keep coming back.”
His 2024 campaign was bookended by glory in Dubai, when he took home three trophies from two tournaments.
Right at the very start of the year, the city also foretold another of the themes of his career, which was to rear its head again in high summer.
McIlroy and 72nd hole heartache are almost as intimately connected as he is with Dubai. Playing in the first Dubai Invitational at the Creek in January, the Northern Irishman lost to another Dubai fans’ favourite, Tommy Fleetwood, at the last.
That was not unique. He had blown the 2022 Desert Classic, which was eventually won by Viktor Hovland, with a rash approach from distance at the 18th on the Sunday at the Majlis.
In the benign climate of the Dubai Invitational, whose first three days were played as a pro-am, it did not feel like such a huge loss. But it turned out to be a portent for something that happened when the stakes were at their highest in the middle of the year.
At the US Open at Pinehurst in June, McIlroy held the solo lead at 8-under par with four holes left. He made three bogeys on the way in from there, including toe-curling missed putts from two feet on 16 and three feet at the last.
When Bryson DeChambeau got up and down from 50 yards out of a bunker on the final hole to save par, it meant he snatched the trophy from McIlroy.
At the end of the year, McIlroy reflected that it had been a productive campaign for him. How could it not have been, when he was sitting at the top table next to the Harry Vardon Trophy as Europe’s best golfer, as well the DP World Tour Championship mace.
He did accept, though, that others might remember his 2024 for the trophies he missed rather than those he won. Presumably he was mainly referencing that US Open, but he left more than just that one out there.
He also pointed out that being third in the world is no mean feat, given the standards set by Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler over the course of the season.
While the latter established himself as the pre-eminent golfer on the planet with an extraordinary haul of eight titles in the calendar year, the former actually trumped him on majors. Schauffele won the Open Championship and the US PGA, while Scheffler merely had to settle for the Masters, albeit supplemented by Olympic gold in Paris, as well as most other things that were on offer.
Domestically, the galleries had to get used to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship being a little warmer than before. The capital’s premier golf event returned at Yas Links in November, after around 21 months away.
It has been switched from its previous January window as part of a revamp of the DP World Tour that now sees the season culminate in a two-legged play-off in the UAE.
While McIlroy might have ended the season with the tour’s main prizes, there was no greater winner from the first DP World Tour Play-offs than Paul Waring.
The Liverpudlian started off on the Thursday at Yas Links in familiar obscurity. It took him four rounds to go from journeyman to superman.
By the end of the Sunday, he was carrying the Falcon Trophy back up the E11 home to Dubai. He had the biggest cheque of his career to bank, and would be changing all his travel plans for 2025 – including multiple entry passes to the United States. Maybe, even, for the Ryder Cup.
Not bad for someone who had driven down to Abu Dhabi from Dubai simply hoping to qualify to make it into the 50-player field for the finale at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
For the past year, that has been his home course. Waring said his move to Dubai had prompted the “monumental” change in his circumstances.
“Where better in the world is there to practise?" Waring said in November, after finally running out of puff when contending for the DP World Tour Championship title, which McIlroy eventually won.
“It was a no-brainer. It has meant a change of lifestyle, and I have met some great people out here as well. It has been the best thing I have ever done.”
