Weekend: McIlroy Triumphs In Dubai, Campos Earns Masters Invite
Weekend: McIlroy Triumphs In Dubai, Campos Earns Masters Invite
Plus, Nelly Korda records her seventh win of 2024. And the latest on Ryder Cup greed (there's a lot).
Where have you heard this before: another terrific week of memorable on-course performances ran up against news of spoiled brats, slow play and greedy bureaucrats?
Apologies in advance for the length of this edition. But I figured we might as well deal with Beauty and the Beast in one fell swoop. After all, everything contained within does have major(s) repercussions. Onward!
Rory McIlroy’s sixth Race to Dubai crown unleashed an unexpected undercurrent of emotion from the veteran.
“It means a lot,” he said after a final round 69 held off Rasmus Højgaard by two strokes. “I've been through a lot this year professionally, personally. It feels like the fitting end to 2024. I've persevered this year a lot.”
With a third win at Jumeirah Estates and a fourth 2024 victory, the 35-year-old joined Seve Ballesteros as six-time winners of the year-long chase. McIlroy is two more season-long titles away from Colin Montgomerie’s record eight-season Order of Merit run.
Tied for the lead heading into the final round with Højgaard and Antoine Rozner, McIlroy knew the Race was locked up but a final 2024 tournament win could take some of the edge off recent heartbreaking losses where he generally performed incredibly well only to have one mistake magnified unfairly. With Sunday’s win he heads into 2025 on a high note and is officially in a stretch-run duel with Ballesteros for most iconic modern European golf hero.
“I think everyone knows what Seve means to European golf and to Ryder Cup players,” McIlroy said after Sunday’s win. “He means so much to European golf and for me to be mentioned in the same breath, I'm very proud.”
The ingredients were in place for another of the bizarre Sunday defeats that have come to define McIlroy’s 2022-24 run of otherwise brilliant play. Højgaard memorably edged McIlroy by birdieing his last three at Royal County Down in September’s Irish Open. Rasmus’ twin brother Nicolai captured the DP World Tour Championship a year ago at Jumeirah Estates. A year removed from missing out on a PGA Tour card by a stroke, the combination of Højgaard’s karma and McIlroy’s history of less-than-happy finishes at Jumeirah set up a fun finish. With the course putting up a nice fight, Højgaard hung around long enough to be a concern before closing with 11 pars, allowing McIlroy to ice the tournament after a brilliant approach to tap-in range at 16th (and a birdie at the par 5 18th ultimately gave McIlroy a two-shot cushion).
“To be able to get over the line – I got off to a great start and didn't have my best in the middle of the round, and Rasmus and I both struggled to get momentum.”
McIlroy recorded eight top-five finishes this season in 12 DP World Tour appearances, including four runner-ups to go with his four wins. He also re-tooled his swing in recent weeks and now heads in 2025 with majors at two of his favorite courses along with a return engagement with his homeland’s Royal Portrush.
In the other peculiar “race”—to the PGA Tou at the DP World Tour’s season-ending championship—Højgaard finished second on the season points list to easily secure duel membership in the DP World and PGA Tours.
The other nine players who have a 2025 PGA Tour card if they so desire:
Thriston Lawrence
Paul Waring
Jesper Svensson
Niklas Norgaard
Matteo Manassero
Thorbjørn Olesen
Antoine Rozner
Rikuya Hoshino
Tom McKibbin
Campos Thrives In Windy Bermuda
Rafael Campos finished 19-under-par to win the Butterfield Bermuda Championship for his first PGA Tour win and first berths into major championships.
Entering at 317th in the world and 147th in the FedExCup, the 36-year-old is now headed to the 2025 Masters and PGA Championship.
Campos arrived in Bermuda just days after wife Paola gave birth to their first child and after surviving high winds, broke out into tears upon holding off an otherwise pitifully weak field—one sporting a paltry 128.225 OWGR rating and just 13 players from the world top 100. The intense winds made Port Royal a fun test while keeping follow-throughs unusually short by PGA Tour standards.
“It's been an unbelievable week, best week of my life,” Campos told Golf Channel’s Tripp Isenhour. “After such a bad year, to have things kind of go my way, everything together at once, I'm just so happy and grateful to have the support I do. My team, my coaches, my sponsors, my family. My caddie did a great job today. I just can't believe this is actually happening to me after such a year. I'm just grateful to be able to call myself a PGA Tour champion. It's something I've dreamt about all my life. I just want to call my family.”
Campos became the second Puerto Rican to win on the PGA Tour after the late eight-time winner and legendary showman Chi Chi Rodriguez. While the $1.2 million check and Masters invite were nice perks, Campos took more joy in no longer worrying about job security.
“I want to provide as much as I can for my family and so money was never a factor in all this,” he said. “I honestly had not even realized that I just won a tournament. Like you just saying those things, possible invitation to these things, money, all I wanted was job security to tell you the truth. That was the only thing on my mind.”
Campos came into the week having missed 13 cuts in his last 15 starts. But a third round 62 vaulted him into the lead heading to Sunday’s final grouping with another 62-shooter, Andrew Novak. While Novak backed-up in the usual fashion after such a low round, Campos’ final round 68 gave the journeyman a breakthrough win, a Masters invite and prized job security for two years.
Highlights:
Korda Takes The Annika
Nelly Korda’s wild 2024 continued with a history-making seventh win in The Annika Driven By Gainbridge at Pelican (a title that is still not exactly rolling off the computer keys but never will ascend to the heights of the American Golf Carta Blanca Johnny Mathis Seniors Classic).
Korda, the Chevron Championship winner earlier this year, won in six of her first eight starts to start the year. A disastrous U.S. Women’s Open performance was eventually left behind after a valiant runner-up at the AIG Women’s Open at the Old Course. But just as that near-miss returned her to form, health issues forced Korda to take time off in the early fall.
Over the weekend, Korda looked like the superstar performer of early 2024. Finishing in the dark Saturday due to outrageously slow rounds, the 26-year-old who once looked so easily irritated continued to look oh so composed.
“You should have felt the nerves that I was feeling on the back nine,” Korda said immediately after winning. “And then, just after taking some time off with an injury, it feels great to be back out here.
“Nothing like being in the hunt, the adrenaline feeling on the back nine, and being in contention. I love it so much.”
Korda’s seventh win in 2024 puts her alongside other American legends of the women’s game: Kathy Whitworth (1973), Nancy Lopez (1978, 1979) and Beth Daniel (1990) are the only Americans since 1970 to win seven or more times in a single season. And Korda is the first player since Yani Tseng (2011) to win seven times in a single season. She has won seven of 15 starts this year and lifted her career tital haul to 15 titles.
Korda also has an affinity for tournament host course Pelican Golf Club: she has posted 14 of 15 career rounds there in the 60s and is a whopping 53-under-par in her career at the Donald Ross design updated by Beau Welling.
Highlights: