Rory McIlroy drove his way to victory in Dubai, using his power from the tee to dominate from the fore as he marched to his tenth European Tour title.
McIlroy continued to impose with his length of the tee and averaged the longest in the field at 317.9 yards with the big stick in hand. His mantle as the longest in the Desert was made even more impressive by fact that big-hitters, Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts and Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, were also vying for that title at the Emirates Golf Club.
Length did come at a price for the Northern Irishman, as accuracy from the tee was sacrificed in favour of increased yardage and he only managed to hit 44.6 per cent of the fairways. Clearly McIlroy saw a greater advantage to be made from playing shorter approach shots, even if that meant from the rough or sandy waste areas prevalent throughout the Desert Swing. -----
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