By Kent Gray
This was the one that got away from Rory McIlroy, or at least that’s the predictable narrative in the immediate wash-up of this extraordinary Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Don’t be so quick to judge.

History will record Haotong Li as gritty and thoroughly worthy winner of the $3 million Desert Swing event, a setter of the tournament record rather than the lucky recipient of any McIlroy misadventure  – even if there was undeniably some.

McIlroy didn’t bring his best stuff to the final round of this historically low week, two back nine bogeys in a 69 leaving him contemplating what might have been for the second successive week after an equally sloppy Sunday had seen him slip to T-3 in Abu Dhabi.

By contrast, Li “hit some of the best shots in my life” to match the three-under 69, hold onto the one stroke cushion he started with over McIlroy and compile a -23 aggregate that eclipsed by a shot the previous Desert Classic benchmark jointly held by Thomas Bjorn (2001), Stephen Gallagher (2013) and McIlroy (2015). In golf, you can only control yourself, and Li did that better than McIlroy. Job done.

“My parents and coach always told me, just keep doing what you’re doing and good things will come,” said Li. They have and will continue too.

It was the 22-year-old’s second European Tour title in just his 61st start and just the sixth by a Chinese player. He’s drawn level with Ashun Wu as the country’s most prolific ET winner, moves up to second in the early Race to Dubai standings and is set to leap from 60th in the world rankings to somewhere around 32nd when the new list is confirmed on Monday morning. He’s the first Chinese player to crack the top 50 of the OWGR and can now call himself a world player after his previous win was at his home Volvo China Open in 2016.

“Happy, incredible,” was Li’s response when asked to sum up his emotions afterwards.

McIlroy’s retort to the same question was understandably less jovial. “Yeah, p….. off,” said the world No.11 before rattling off a back nine of missed opportunities.

“I mean, birdieing 10, going two ahead there with Li making bogey [after a penalty drop from an unplayable lie], thought I was obviously in the driver’s seat and just a bogey out of nowhere on 11, just a bad 9-iron there [into a bunker from where he failed to get up and down]. And then the 3-putt on 13, those were the two key holes of the tournament, really, even though there was a bad tee shot on 16.”

The blocked drive on 16 into a tree-stymied rut in the sand might have been bad, but it wasn’t nearly as calamitous as the next shot McIlroy attempted from the horrible lie. The flying cut he envisioned turned into a ropy little hook into the left rough and after a hole of army golf – left, right, left, right – a bogey ensued. It was a decent dropped shot too after a tidy up and down from behind the green but Li, on a high after birding the par-3 15th, suddenly led by one.   

McIlroy plays his fateful second shot on the 16th. Getty Images.

“From being two ahead, standing on the 11th tee, to being level going into 16, I just, I don’t know, it was a couple of bad shots, a couple of poor decisions, a couple of mental errors, a few tentative putts out there, as well,” McIlroy continued.

“I kept leaving myself in places where I couldn’t really give it a run at the hole because they were downhill, down grain, down wind. So I didn’t really leave it in the best spots to be aggressive with my putts.

“But tried until the very end. Made two good birdies [on 17 and 18]. Made him win it in the end, which was, you know, all I could do, and he played very well on the way in, birdieing three of the last four. I just wish I could get a couple of those holes back.”

As McIlroy eluded, Li really did win it, responding to the Northern Irishman’s up and down birdie with a delightful pitch from beside a tree on 17 with a six-footer for his own gain. He then slammed the door with a wedge-nine foot birdie combo on 18 before McIlroy rolled in his own consolation birdie to finish two clear of Tyrrell Hatton after the Englishman signed for a 66 and solo third.

“It’s definitely going to give me a lot of confidence for next few events, rest of the year. Especially for the Masters. Never been there [Augusta National] before. Looking forward to those big events,” Li said.

McIlroy, at least once he calms down, must be itching for the drive up Magnolia Lane too after a could have, should have fortnight that proved, even if he’s still searching for a first victory since the 2016 PGA Tour Championship, that his comeback is ahead of schedule.

“If someone had of told me at the start of the year you’d finish third and second your first two events, I’d say, yeah, I’d take that.

“But being in the positions I’ve been in and having two close calls the first couple of weeks of the year, it’s a little difficult. The competitor in me is very disappointed right now. I wanted to win. I always want to win, and I just didn’t do enough when I needed to.”

Maybe it will take a day or two for Rory to come off the boil. Li will certainly take longer to come off cloud 9 and may never do so if the Desert Classic’s rub of the green – the last two champions Danny Willett and Sergio Garcia went on to claim the green jacket – continues. Winning the Dallah really is that big a deal.