Rory McIlroy shot a final round six-under par 66 to finish 23-under par and win the DP World Golf Championship in Dubai by two shots over Justin Rose.
This makes five world-wide wins for McIlroy on the year and brings his total winnings on the European Tour to €4,738,026. He also had over $8 million in total earnings on the PGA Tour in 2012.
The European Tour’s Race to Dubai features 45 tournaments scattered over 24 countries. McIlroy only competed in 15 European Tour events but was the leading money winner by more than €2.1 million over Peter Hanson.
His win at the PGA Championship, plus high finishes in the majors, as well as, the jointly sanctioned World Golf Championship (WGC) events gave him the necessary earnings to add the European Tour’s money title to his PGA Tour money title for 2012.
Rory traded the No. 1 world ranking with Luke Donald four different times during the year but has held the No. 1 ranking for 15 consecutive weeks. He held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 22 weeks this year and doesn’t appear to be relinquishing his hold on it anytime soon.
After his win at the Honda Classic in March on the PGA Tour he lost his game for a time and struggled to find it. From May to the end of June he missed three cuts in four events.
During this time he decided to hire his long-time coach Michael Bannon on a full-time basis. That decision paid big dividends. In his last seven events of the year on the PGA Tour Rory collected three wins and was only outside the Top-10 twice. During this run he won the PGA Championship, as well as, the Deutsche Bank and the BMW Championships in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
He ends the year as the No. 1 player on both the PGA and European Tours. He has two major championships already on his resume’ and is the No. 1 player in the world. These are Hall of Fame numbers to be sure.
Will the aching and aging Tiger Woods give him any competition in 2013?
Can Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Justin Rose or one of the many talented young American players become worthy opponents for the kid from Ireland?
Rory has a beautiful and talented girlfriend, is only 23 years old, just inked a new mega-deal with Nike, and is the best golfer on the planet.
Rory McIlroy had a pretty good year in 2012.