Dubai, UAE…

Rory McIlroy may have raised plenty of eyebrows with a decision not to rejoin the 2019 European Tour but he’s won support from event organisers with a decision also not to contest next year’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

McIlroy hinted at the recent Tour Championship in Atlanta he would be starting his 2019 season in Hawaii and that probably meant mising out for just a second time in his pro career beginning a New Year in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

And the current World No. 7 confirmed that intention not to tee-up in the Middle East ahead of this week’s DP World Tour Championship.

Rory McIlroy knows how good the Mijlas course is having won the 2009 and 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Clasic.

It will mark a first occasion also since turning pro in late 2007 that McIlroy has chosen not to play either the Abu Dhabi HSBC Chmpionship or the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, and with McIlroy to kick-start 2019 at the PGA Tour’s Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

McIlroy shares a strong affinity with the UAE and Dubai especially, having first played the Desert Classic in 2006 on a sponsor’s invite. He won three years later to seal a first professional victory and added another title at Emirates Golf Club in 2015.  Next year’s event, which runs January 24-27 and follows directly after Abu Dhabi, marks the 10-year anniversary to McIlroy’s breakthrough triumph.

“Rory has been an integral part of Dubai and the UAE’s ‘golfing DNA’ since 2006 when he played in his first Omega Dubai Desert Classic as an amateur before going on to win his first professional event, the 2009 Omega Dubai Desert Classic, which he won again in 2015,” said Tournament Director David Spencer in the local UAE The National.

“Rory has also won the Race to Dubai three times and the DP World Tour Championship twice and he has always featured strongly in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA. We fully respect any decision that Rory takes to create a path back to being the No 1 player in the world, which we know is his 2019 goal.”