Rory McIlroy has won the Dubai Desert Classic for a fourth time after posting a one-shot victory in the Middle East.
At the halfway stage, the Northern Irishman was cut adrift from the frontrunners and seemingly had little hope of lifting the trophy at this competition yet again.
However, a stunning 63 on Saturday catapulted him towards the top of the leaderboard and he was able to get the job done on Sunday with a round of 70.
On a day where scoring was not as impressive as the round before, McIlroy still managed to record three birdies on his opening nine holes to extend his lead.
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The world number two had less success on the back nine - bogeying one of the par fives and failing to find a birdie - but he was able to set up a scenario of having two putts from 10 feet to seal the win ahead of Adrian Meronk.
American Cameron Young was made to wait for a breakthrough success having only been able to finish in third, two shots behind McIlroy and one adrift of the Polish runner-up.
There was a three-day tie for fourth as Aaron Cockerill, Pablo Larrazabal and Joaquin Niemann shot 68, 66 and 70 respectively to edge into the top five.
Tommy Fleetwood - the winner of last week's Dubai Invitational - had to make do with a share of 14th place after only registering a 73 for his final round.
Darren Plant
