Saturday, February 7, 2009

At the Dubai Desert Classic, a superstar was born.


As I watched Rory McIlroy's run of five straight birdies from the ninth on the final day, I got the feeling I was watching somebody who is soon going to emerge as one of the best players in the world, if he isn't already.

But that final round was certainly a rollercoaster of emotions. He'd played so brilliantly for the first three days and the last thing you wanted to see was him throw it away - but he so nearly did.

He'd effectively won the tournament by establishing a six-shot lead, then he struggled around five, six and seven so on the back nine he had to win it all over again and that run of birdies put it back in his hands.

Then it seemed that somebody turned on the panic mode again with some poor club choices at 15 and 16, a poor tee-shot at 17 and coming up the last you wondered if this was going to be a disaster of Jean Van de Velde proportions.

I thought his lay-up at 18 was probably too close to the green, and to his horror he then he played it long and landed in the back trap.

But he managed to come up with a bunker shot that will undoubtedly win Shot of the Month and will be a contender for Shot of the Year. Anything over-hit would have gone in the water and the tournament would have gone to Justin Rose, but he came up with an absolute gem.

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