FULL Play-Off | Rory McIlroy vs Matt Fitzpatrick | 2025 DP World Tour Championship

Every shot of the dramatic play-off between Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick at the DP World Tour Championship.

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The 2025 Race to Dubai is set for a dramatic climax this week at the DP World Tour Championship. After visiting 27 countries across five continents, the DP World Tour’s wraparound schedule reaches a climax this week in Dubai. Since 2009, the DP World Tour Championship has annually played host to the season-ending event. Contested over 72 holes, with no cut, the concluding Rolex Series event features a $10 million prize fund – the biggest of the 42-tournament 2025 Race to Dubai season. Luke Donald’s side that are in action this week, as are McIlroy, Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Rasmus Højgaard, with Justin Rose joining in the action after opting to miss last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Jacob Skov Olesen, who made his Rolex Series debut last week in Abu Dhabi, is the only graduate of DP World Tour Qualifying School in the field. While any player in the field can with the Tour Championship, only three players could win the Race to Dubai: Rory McIlroy, Marco Penge and Tyrell Hatton.

Welcome to the Official YouTube channel of the DP World Tour. Every week you can find extended tournament highlights and individual player highlights from the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood. This is also the home of the 14 Club Challenge, Little Interviews, Fastest Hole and many more challenges, pranks and world record attempts featuring the biggest golfers in the world.

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[Applause] It’s going to be in the rough and it depends how it’s sitting. We can’t see it behind the trees. We’re probably going to sit down and it’ll be a layup from there. Oh, well, maybe not. Good light. Oh, he’s a stubborn boy. Wall is bang on. The wind has up the ante and he covered the stream by about eight yards in real time. He’s won three and lost five playoffs in the DP World Tour. [Music] And Mroy finds the penalty area. Yeah, he has found it. All right, Dom, it will be still on and three for him. Certainly advantage uh Fitzpatrick now at this stage, particularly with the good line that he has. He might even get it up around the green. Three of his four wins worldwide this year have come in extra holes, but a a mistake from Maroy off the tea. The early advantage to Fitz Patrick. There’s Rory’s ball now. Very narrow fairway up that right side. Plenty ball speed. 189 was going to carry the water. He was 187 earlier, but uh this time a little bit too much draw on it. Stream runs right across the center of the ferry, dissecting it. So, you got to choose to go left or right. Fat’s got to be thinking birdie. I know your opponent is in the water. It’s easy to take your foot off the gas and think, “Okay, I’ll just coast it up there and make a and make a par and maybe win this playoff.” But you got to stay in the front foot against a player the caliber of Maroy. particularly being so far up. Remember, he’s only going to be maybe 240 or so from the green from there. And that’s going to be comfortably on in three. Lie is good. Fitzpatrick 282 all up. I don’t see him. Well, the angle’s okay from there. I’m not sure. I think he plays just short of this and relies on the wedge game. Maybe 50 short. Try and pitch it on top with a third. I’m not sure off the down slope you’d have a go at this. It’s a big ask. Of course, the down slope does actually sort of coax that ball out to that sort of short front right location that Anthony is talking about. This is the Yeah, hands on hips. Fitzpatrick studies the lie and works out Higus strategy. Will be taking a penalty drop. Yeah, I think you ignore what Rory’s doing. I think you play your game. I like something 40 short and a Rana pitch off that down slow for Fitzpatrick. Another lover of that play if he goes at it from 288. Watching preview. Yeah, Rory will have a similar yardage to the one that he had in regulation play. So, he knows the shot. Let’s watch it go in here. So he’s crossed the hazard. Yeah. At that stake. So two club lengths from the point of entry. Or he can go back as long as he wants keeping that point in line with the flag. And that means he can get it on the fairway. Yeah. He’s got about 233 his second shot roughly. I suspect missing it left. Right. TV laying up. Easy. Goodness me. You heard him say there. Just heard him say it’s come out spinny. Was it puffed up into the wind? That’s why it didn’t go to yardage. So, not long has he been lucky to carry the water, but he’s actually going to be further back than he was anticipating and hoping. It’s made Rory’s a little easier. [Music] Yeah, it’s the red steak. I’m just going to see which one. Nice and slowly. All right. So, what’s that? The first one up there past the bridge. I think he’s come a little bit further back, Andrew, to try to make sure he’s on the fairway, but I’m sure he could have from where it went in, he could have been on the fairway, too. Well, yeah, I thought it was up there about the stake. Anyway, the referee’s there, so there’s there’s no danger about the drop, but flags on the right hand side there. All the players are using that as a guide to make sure because they’re down in a valley the direction of the wind and also the strength of it. [Applause] 234 yds. You were one out Andrew. Good try though, man. It’ll be the same club. The fivewood. The ball is slightly below his feet and he knows all about that. That’s why I dropped it there cuz he wants to play take a little off this. I need a high left to right fader and get it to come down softly. He’s got good vibes for this shot. He was successful last time. Now All right. And the bunker down the right hand side. It’s going to test his skills to get up and down there for the par. Yeah, he’s a long way from the flag from there. Bunker is just on the front edge of the green. Eats in a little bit up the green, but not by a lot. So, it must be a good 40 50 yards there. And he’s got to come up a tier as well. Once again, advantage Fitzpatrick. Yeah, lovely lovely clean line. Nice angle with the pin really. I think it’s just under a four wedge uphill into the breeze. So, he’s obviously gone for his favorite number. I think he would have possibly played a little bit further up, but I think he’s gone for the favorite number around that 130 mark. Was the ball close to going in the water with the second shot or just angle? Yeah, it wasn’t far away. It was only a couple of yards. Had a chance to go left as well. Just caught a bit of a flat spot. a little bit surprised. He might have gone another 15 20 further. It’s wider, but the wedge game is his thing. Puff a breeze into remember that little swale just shot left the flag stick that put paid to Aayoro. He’s just got to watch out for that with any spin. Yeah, Maroy has certainly opened the door to think that he doesn’t have to be overly aggressive here. Five may win it now. So, I’m expecting this one to be a bit little bit long, a little bit right here. A little bit cautious, but at the same time give himself a chance for birdie. Doesn’t have to be gung-ho. Surely past the flag pole is the play, the easier putt. Takes a the slope out of play as well. Gives him that birdie p. Well, well, well. We’ve seen a few players over there today and they haven’t found it too difficult from over there, but of course, a lot more pressure now. So that was a foot off the gas shot there from uh Fitzpatrick. Well, he’s been great around the greens, but yeah, that was that’s a mistake. You don’t want to give Maroy a whiff of blood. This is a hard shot, it must be said. The ball above his feet, which means sometimes one takes too much sand and you come out well short. He needs to fly it all the way onto a a little hump, one bounce and then trickle it down the slope. If he gets really greedy and wants to pick this somewhat, he can fly it all the way. But that is risky. You could knife it. But taking too much sand, well, that can happen more often than not on this occasion. And he can’t he can’t sort of chunk and release it up the up that slope. I think let’s just have a look at his eyes. He’s kind of having a look where I said like just he’s looking at that little crest, that little hump. Whether he takes too much sound, I don’t know if it’ll have enough momentum from this range to get like 40 ft of release, Andrew, up that slope and over. I think you have to sort of play it aggressively and pop it into that up slope and hope it trickles over the hill. left of the flag feeds off the green as well. So probably have to air a bit on the right hand side. sat on top of the ridge. And he hit it, he knew he didn’t make the right contact with it that he needed. It was a very, very difficult golf shot. It’s quick. We know it’s quick underneath the level of the green as well. So will need a little bit of elevation just to take a bit of pace off this. He will take some time. There’s a lot of noise around the back of this screen. He does catch the slope. Super tidy. Very very tidy. Well played. Matus Patrick. Surely that’s a five assured. That’s all. Can Maroy produced heroics again? If there was anyone else, you’d say no. Well, if he does not get in, it’s going to be the longest put he’s hold. Can he go to the well again? [Applause] [Music] Not this time. A bogey six for Rory Maroy, but he has secured the race to Dubai title for the seventh time in his career. A fitting finish to this season of seasons for the Northern Irishman. And Matthew Fitzpatrick has this part to win his third DP World Tour Championship. The hattick is secured for Fitzpatrick and a nice finish to his year as well which started so poorly but has certainly come good in the second half. They are both winners. Gentlemen, please. Matthew, many congratulations on winning the DP World Tour Championship 2025. Your third win in this championship, your first win in two years, your second Rolex Series event. Just tell us just how good this feels, what it means to you. It means the world. Yeah, it means the world. I mean, you know, struggled at the start this year obviously and um, you know, to turn it around in the summer like I did and have a Ryder Cup like I did. It’s, you know, Ryder Cup in particular, I feel like it’s hard to top um, given everything. But, you know, the way that I played today, I, you know, I feel like I really hit like one one bad shot all day. So, you know, I’m just so so proud of myself, you know, the effort that everyone puts in behind the scenes, you know, my team and stuff. It’s um, yeah, what a feeling. What a feeling. Eight pars in a row in the middle of the round, three behind with six to play. How did you turn it around? How did you shoot three under over those last few holes and then make that difficult up and down at the last to walk away as champ? Yeah, I know. I mean, I I’d not been hitting it amazing uh all week. I kind of really hit it well yesterday and and I would say I hit it really well today. And um you know, Dan was insistent on being patient all day and just letting the pot putts come and you know, like you say, the middle of the round there, nothing really was going my way. And then uh you know, managed to roll a couple in late and and get yourself in position. your thoughts when Rory was coming up the 18th. You’ve got to believe he’s going to hold this, but in your mind, were you really thinking that? Of course you do. Yeah, it’s uh he’s probably one of the only few um that you know that you’re going to a playoff. You know, you’re too clearly want to play and you know you’re going to a playoff. So, um you know, in typical Rory fashion, you know, he did it again and obviously you know, you never like to see it to the way ends, but um obviously delighted. From the middle of 2024 to the middle of 2025, you didn’t have a top 10 for 11 months. Is this a win for Perseverance? Is this a win for Mark Blackburn’s work with you? Uh, yeah. It’s a, you know, it’s a, it’s a win for everyone. It really is. It’s, you know, Dan, Dan’s gone above and beyond in the effort that he’s put in in this team. You know, my performance director Lou Mackey has done awesome. Phil Kenyon’s amazing. Um, you know, strength coach Andrew, every everyone in the team is really, I feel like, has come come together and um, you know, I couldn’t be couldn’t be happier. and and obviously in that down period, you know, I had the support of of my my wife and my friends and family and it to to turn it around and and be here now is very special. Many many congratulations DP World Tour champion 2025. Thanks Tim. Thank you. It is by the way his 10th DP World Tour title. There is our race to Dubai champion though. He’s moved clear of Sabriano Bayos. He’s within one of the all-time record holder Colin Montgomery. Let us hear from Rory Mroy with Tim Barta. Rory, before we talk about winning the race to Dubai again, let’s talk about today and the dramatic events that unfolded. Eagle in the last again. just talk us through your day from your point of view. Yeah. Um got off to the perfect start. You know, I um you three under through five, four under through seven. Uh felt like I’d sort of taken control of the golf tournament. Was a couple ahead and then um yeah, I made a you know, I made two bogeies on the way in on 12 and 16 and and didn’t birdie 14 and 15 the birdie holes and um obviously knew I needed something to to happen on the last. I actually hit a great shot on 17. Came up a little short on a great putt that lipped out. Um but yeah, the last look I I knew what I needed to do. I hit a great fivewood. Um lucky to see Rasmin’s pup before mine. Saw his sort of hung out to the right a little bit before it started to turn. So got a bit of a read from him. Um and yeah, look, great way to finish. It was nice to be able to summon what I needed to to make the playoff, but um yeah, unfortunately hitting it in the water there on on 18 in the playoff just um sort of put me behind the eight ball, but you know, happy happy for Matt. He’s had a he’s had a great end of the season. Um you know, played great, you know, to to get on the RDER Cup team and then, you know, he sort of kept it going since. So So really happy for him as well. Last year you equal the legendary Sean Bars six race to Dubai titles. This year you surpassed it. you know, if he was here, he would be saying tilito, meaning congratulations to you. Tell us how it feels to surpass his total. Uh, it’s amazing. I um I had a conversation with his wife Carmen um before I went out to play today and um you know, she told me how proud he would have been. And um yeah, it’s you know uh he you know I said this on this screen last year to you he means so much to this tour and to the European Rder Cup team and um we rally so much around his spirit and his quotes and you know everything he meant for European golf and um to equal him last year was cool but to surpass him this year um yeah I I I didn’t get this far in my dream so it’s uh it’s very cool now just one behind and Colin Montgomery’s eight record total. Yeah. How much do you want it? You don’t need it, but how much do you want it? I want it. Of course I do. When you get that close and, you know, I was I caught up with Monty this week and he was here a couple days ago and I saw him and um yeah, look, I it it it seems, you know, within touching distance now. And um I would, you know, I I would love to, you know, I was the first European to win the Grand Slam. I’d love to be I’d love to be the winning European in terms of the world championship in terms of order merits and season long races and um you know I’ve hopefully got a few more good years left in me and uh you know hopefully I can I can catch him and surpass him. Rory, many many congratulations. Thanks for everything you’ve given us this year. It’s been amazing. Thanks Tim. Thank you.