Rai edges out Fleetwood in play-off as McIlroy falls just short in Abu Dhabi

Rory McIlroy shot a stunning 62 in his final round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship

Sun, 09 Nov, 2025 - 13:34

Aaron Rai held his nerve to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after beating Tommy Fleetwood on the first play-off hole.

The 30-year-old sunk a birdie from just over eight feet to emulate his only previous Rolex Series win at the 2020 Scottish Open – which was also a play-off win over Fleetwood.

Rai went into the final round with a one-shot lead over Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard, and emerged with a total of 263 after a topsy-turvy, five-under final round that included seven birdies and two bogeys.

He missed a 10-foot putt to win it on the last and see off Fleetwood, who had moved one shot clear with two to play after a birdie on the 16th, but ultimately had to settle for parity after a six-under final round of 66.

"It's hard to sum up," said Rai.

"I was so focused, just tried to stay in the zone. It's hard to put into words at the at the moment how this feels and how I'm going to reflect on it.

"Just amazing to be stood here. Obviously Tommy is a phenomenal player and he's an even better person than he is a player, and that says a lot. To play with him the last two days, and to be able to be in a playoff with him was really special as well."

Rory McIlroy left himself just too much to do, coming up one shot short in a tie for third place with Hojgaard, after a stunning 10-under final round of 62, comprising eight birdies and an eagle – his lowest ever round on the DP World Tour.

"I got off to a really good start," said McIlroy.

"I was 3-under through two. Hit two great shots into the first, two great shots into the second, converted. And then stalled a little bit on the front nine. I birdied 7 to get to 4-under.

"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 with getting five birdies in a row. Drove it on to the 10th green again. Hit a couple of really good wedges in that stretch and knocked them in.

"Once I was 9-under through 14, I thought, okay, if I can post a number here, I knew 15, 16, 17, were playing tough back into the wind off the left.

"I did hit a good wedge shot on 15. Just got caught by the wind a built.

"16 and 17, I watched the a Aaron and Tommy played those two holes, and they played them unbelievably well. Yeah, just it's hard to make birdies on those holes and 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."

"Obviously ended up one short but great day of golf, and a great way to end the week. And also a great way to sort of go into next week into Dubai, as well."

McIlroy heads into next week's DP World Tour Championship at the Earth Course 767 points ahead of Macro Penge in the Race to Dubai rankings.

"I really like that golf course," said McIlroy.

"It really suits me. Probably suits me a little bit better than this course does this week just in terms of what you need to do off the tee and into the greens. Yeah, look, this was a great confidence-builder this week coming off a couple weeks off and hopefully just produce more of the same next Thursday and onwards."

Hojgaard fired six birdies but his hopes of topping the leaderboard were hit by a bogey on the 12th. England’s Richard Mansell hit an excellent final round 63 to finish tied for fifth place with Australia’s Daniel Hillier. Shane Lowry finished tied for 12th, seven shots off the leaders.