A final hole meltdown from world No. 26 Shane Lowry has helped gift Spain’s Nacho Elvira victory in the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational overnight.
Lowry had begun the closing round in a tie for second, two strokes off the Spaniard, but a birdie at the 15th lifted him into the lead and the title seemingly his to lose.
Lowry was -10 for the tournament and with a one shot lead heading onto the 18th tee.
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Which he somehow conspired to do in unfortunate and cruel circumstances.
He found the greenside bunker with his second shot and then with his third out of the trap, the ball landed near the hole before racing off the green and into the water.
His double bogey on 18 left the door wide open for Elvira to pounce, which he did.
It cost him a shot at $467,500 USD ($700,000 AUD), instead having to settle for $130,000 ($194,000 AUD).
Lowry was distraught when speaking to reporters, labelling his performance on the final hole “a disaster”.
“What can you do? You have to learn from it and move on, lads,” Lowry said.
“This game is … I don’t know. It’s the start of my 18th season on tour and I’ll never figure it out.
“This is going to hurt, like, for a day or two. I haven’t won in a few years, and it’s hard to get over the line.
“I know this is not like the biggest tournament in the world, you still get [a chance] to beat Rory McIlroy down the stretch and I almost did that. I gave it to Nacho at the end. It’s a bit of a disaster.
“I tried my best. I did everything I could and hit the wrong club in the last, and that cost me a playoff.
‘I was just trying to hit a soft 9 [iron]. To be fair, if you hit a wedge at the flag and it comes out a little softer, it goes into the water [short of the green] and in hindsight I probably would have been better doing that because you can get it up and down from there.
“I hit a shocking shot. It’s not good enough.”
Elvira, who had struggled early in the round, duly parred the hole for an unexpected but nonetheless welcome and important victory.
The Spaniard told Sky Sports: “It means the world. If you had told me on Tuesday that I was going to be winning this I would never have believed you. It is a dream come true.”
Elvira finished on a 10-under par total of 274, one shot in front of New Zealander Daniel Hillier, with Lowry a further shot back in a tie for third with three more players, including Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy, who started the final round three shots off the lead, forced his way into contention as Elvira faltered, and brieflyheld a share of an increasingly crowded leaderboard.
Lowry, bidding for his first DP World Tour title since the 2022 BMW PGA Championship, looked to have made the decisive move with a 25-foot birdie on the 15th to move to the top of the leaderboard.
And when McIlroy pulled his birdie chance wide on the 17th, he set up a golden opportunity for his close friend.
But moments after Lowry had powered his third shot on the 18th into the water, Elvira birdied the 17th to seize control.
Hillier, whose six-under-par final round of 65 had him hoping for at least a playoff but Elvira, who had seen his overnigh tlead wiped out after successive early bogeys, held firm.
