{"id":252524,"date":"2026-01-19T13:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/252524\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T13:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:53:12","slug":"final-hole-double-bogey-denies-shane-lowry-at-dubai-invitational-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/252524\/","title":{"rendered":"Final hole double bogey denies Shane Lowry at Dubai Invitational \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Lowry<\/a> endured a nightmare finish in his quest to claim the Dubai Invitational<\/a>, a calamitous double-bogey six finish \u2013 with the title within his grasp \u2013 ending his quest for a first win on the DP World Tour in over three years as Spain\u2019s Nacho Elvira kept his cool to land the title at the Dubai Creek Resort.<\/p>\n

So near, and yet so far for Lowry.<\/p>\n

His puzzled expression to caddie Darren Reynolds after his approach to the 18th green flew into a back bunker was followed by one of anguish as he compounded the error by landing his recovery from the sand on a downslope and his Srixon 15 ball ran disobediently off the putting surface into the water hazard.<\/p>\n

A double-bogey six finish dropped Lowry from the top of the leader board into a share of third place alongside Rory McIlroy<\/a>, who had made a remarkable five birdies in a row from the ninth to the 13th to propel his way into contention on a drams-filled final round. Lowry closed out with a 69 for an eight-under-par 276 and McIlroy a 68, also for 276, ultimately two behind Elvira who signed for a 69 for 274, earning the Spaniard a third career win on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n

A case of what might have been for Lowry? Definitely. Without a win on the DP World Tour since his success at Wentworth in 2022, Lowry stuck gamely to the task on the final day and moved into the solo lead with a birdie on the 15th, rolling in a 27 footer for the fifth birdie of his round.<\/p>\n

And when he hit a wonderfully crafted low drive to the fairway on the treacherous 18th, which played as the toughest of the tournament, it seemed as if the hardest part was over. <\/p>\n

With 139 yards to the pin, though, Lowry\u2019s approach flew the green into the back bunker and his shot out then gathered pace down the slope into the water. A penalty drop followed by a pitch and a putt saw him signing for a six, while behind him Elvira rolled in a seven footer for birdie on the 17th to move to 10-under.<\/p>\n

That birdie was Elvira\u2019s first in 10 holes, going back to the seventh after which he had bogeyed the eighth and ninth and then grinded out seven straight pars, but it would prove to be the decisive putt as he managed to finish with a par on the 18th to finish one clear of New Zealand\u2019s Daniel Hillier with Lowry, McIlroy, David Puig and Julien Guerrier in a four-way share of third.<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory McIlroy plays a shot from a bunker on the seventh hole. Photograph: Andrew Redington\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

McIlroy, for his part, had seemed to drift out of contention \u2013 six behind leader Elvira through seven holes of his final round \u2013 only to fire into life with a string of birdies from the ninth to the 13th.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really focused on winning the tournament,\u201d said McIlroy. \u201cI was just trying to piece it together and make some good swings and try to hit a few more fairways, which I did for the most part.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall it was a good first week back. I felt like I learned a lot of stuff about my game. I wasn\u2019t very sharp, but hopefully I\u2019m a little bit sharper going into next week than I was going into this week, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy and Lowry remain in the UAE for the Dubai Desert Classic, which gets under way on Thursday, for back-to-back weeks on the DP World Tour before heading back to the United States to start their PGA Tour seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry endured a nightmare finish in his quest to claim the Dubai Invitational, a calamitous double-bogey six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6608,61,60,1394,1395,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-252524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-dp-world-tour","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-rory-mcilroy","12":"tag-shane-lowry","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}