Rahm with his third DP World Tour Championship – photo Getty Images
Jon Rahm completed a third win in the DP World Tour Championship or its equivalent with a two shot victory over Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren at the season ending championship in Dubai.
But, in finishing 4th this week, Rory McIlroy confirmed his place atop the DP World Tour rankings with New Zealand’s Ryan Fox finishing this week’s event off strongly to finish 19th in the event to retain his number two position in season long standings and complete a remarkable season, not only for him but for New Zealand golf with Steve Alker winning the Charles Schwab Cup and Lydia Ko on track to win the LPGA Tour Race to the Globe.
Rahm extended his one shot 54 hole lead to two with a final round of 67 after beginning the day with three consecutive birdies and will finish in 3rd place in the rankings behind McIlroy and Fox.
“Hopefully people can stop telling me that it was a bad year,”said Rahm. “Three wins world wide, three wins in three different continents, yeah, it wasn’t a major championship but it’s still a really, really good season. You know, had a second boy this year, a lot of changes at home — it also helps.
“Because of COVID I never got a chance to defend my 2019 title and even though I decided not to come last year, I came with the mentality that, well, nobody beat me in the last two years, so they are going to have to beat me again. I came in with that confidence; a lot of similarities to the past.”
Despite not winning this week, McIlroy was delighted to have officially claimed the title as Europe’s leading player
“It means a lot,” said McIlroy. ”It has been seven years since I’ve last done it. Obviously, this is my fourth one, but it’s been a while. I’ve won three FedEx Cups since the last time I won, which was The Race to Dubai back then.
“I was a model of consistency the whole way through the year. A lot of top finishes. I think my worst finish of the DP World Tour events I played this year was 12th at the start of the year in Abu Dhabi. A really consistent season putting in good performances. Would have been nice to get one win in there at the end of the year here. But Jon obviously played an incredible tournament and fully deserved it. I’m really proud of my year, and excited for 2023.
“One of the things I’m really proud of over the last few years is I don’t feel I have to rely on one aspect of my game. I think if my driving isn’t there, then my putter bails me out. If my putter isn’t there, my iron play bails me out. I feel like when you get to this level, it’s like, okay, how can you make those incremental improvements to get better, and I think my goal has been to just become a more complete golfer and I feel like I’m on the journey to doing that.
“I’m as complete a golfer as I feel like I’ve ever been, and hopefully I can continue on that path.”
For Fox it has been a stunning season with two wins and eight other top tens and he acknowledges the improvement he has made.
“Yeah, if you had given me that at the start of the year, I would have jumped at it obviously. The big goal at the start of the year was to get a win and to get in that Top-50, and I knocked those off pretty quickly this year.
“Probably felt like a year I may have let a couple other chances to win slip. But it’s pretty hard to win out here, and to get a couple is pretty cool.
“It’s just a great experience to be in contention all the time. I started to feel a lot more comfortable in that position than I had in previous years, so hopefully I can build on it a little bit more for next year.
“Probably a little disappointed this week. I probably came in playing nice. Last week, I think it just took it out of me physically a little bit. Felt good out there today but probably took a bit longer than expected to find it.
“You know, considering I had a pretty good chance to win the rankings, obviously beating Rory is pretty hard to do but coming into this week with a chance is pretty cool and probably exceeded my expectations for the year.”
Min Woo Lee finished as the leading Australian when he tied for 12th this week and finished the year in 32nd place and as the leading Australian in the season long standings.
