Aaron Rai survived a playoff against the PGA Tour’s reigning FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood and the lowest round of Rory McIlroy’s DP World Tour career to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Sunday.
Fair play, even if he was not the biggest name on the leaderboard at Yas Links on Sunday.
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Rai birdied the first playoff hole to defeat fellow Englishman Fleetwood at the opening event of the DP World Tour playoffs. Rai had shot 67 in regulation to Fleetwood’s 66 as both finished at 25 under par. The duo was one ahead of McIlroy and Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard (67) who shared third at 24 under.
Rai, whose breakthrough PGA Tour victory came at the Wyndham Championship in 2024, denied his countryman a third win around the world in less than 80 days. Fleetwood had captured his own maiden PGA Tour victory at the Tour Championship in August, a long-awaited milestone that also delivered the season-long FedEx Cup title, before winning the DP World India Championship last month. Fleetwood also posted a Ryder Cup-best four points at Bethpage to help Europe to victory in September.
“It’s hard to sum up. I was so focused, just tried to stay in the zone,” Rai, 30, said of his third DP World Tour victory. Ironically, his most recent European title, the 2020 Scottish Open, also came via defeating Fleetwood in a playoff.
“It’s hard to put into words at the moment how this feels and how I’m going to reflect on it. It’s just amazing to be stood here. Obviously Tommy is a phenomenal player and he’s an even better person … to play with him the last two days, and to be able to be in a playoff with him was really special as well.”
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Rai, a Wolverhampton, England, native who plays on the PGA Tour and is based in Ponte Vedra, Fla., had made an albatross during the second round when he holed out from 214 yards during a 64.
Sunday was more of a rollercoaster. Rai was flying early on the final day with four straight birdies from the fourth before a bogey at No. 8 stopped his momentum. He played the next eight holes in one over and felt the tournament slipping through his fingers.
“My caddie, Jason [Timmis], was great walking down the 15th because it was a little bit of a shock to the system, really, on 14, missing a short putt [for par],” Rai said. “He was just telling me to stay present and just focus on playing the next shots and trying to finish strong. I made a really good up and down on 15 [for par], which really helped [and] certainly gave a little bit of confidence moving forward. That was that was an important moment.”
Rai made tournament-defining birdies on 16 and 17 that allowed room to narrowly miss a birdie putt to win on the 72nd and still be gifted a second chance via a playoff. He didn’t miss when facing another short birdie putt in an extra trip down the par-5 18th. Fleetwood had seconds earlier missed a longer attempt to extend the playoff. “It was nice to finish off pretty strong over the last three holes as well,” Rai said.
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But on Sunday, it was McIlroy who stole the show as Rai, Fleetwood and Hojgaard battled it out in the final groups. The reigning Masters champion, McIlroy made a perfect start to the final day with a birdie and an eagle in the first two holes, but he wasn’t able to register another birdie until No. 7.
He made the turn in four under and put the foot down with a scintillating start to the back nine. The Northern Irishman drove the 386-yard par-4 10th, where a two-putt birdie kicked off the first of a five in a row that put him one behind the lead. When McIlroy narrowly missed reaching the par-5 18th in two shots, he was able to get up and down for a birdie that yielded a stunning 62, and the clubhouse lead. Eight birdies, an eagle and no bogeys delivered the lowest round in McIlroy’s career on the European circuit.
“I got off to a really good start; three under through two … and then stalled a little bit on the front nine,” McIlroy said. “I played the front nine very well this week, and then it was on the back nine that I couldn’t really get anything going. But I started the back nine [today] with five birdies in a row. Hit a couple of really good wedges in that stretch and knocked them in.
“Once I was nine under through 14, I thought, ‘OK, if I can post a number here. Aaron and Tommy played [16 and 17] unbelievably well. It’s hard to make birdies on those holes.’ Obviously, I ended up one short but great day of golf.
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“I knew on 18, the one thing I said to Harry walking off the green is ‘At least we are going to make them earn it no matter what happens.’”
Rai certainly worked for the victory this week. McIlroy, though, appears primed for a seventh season-long Race to Dubai title given he leads the standings heading into this week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
