McIlroy loses playoff to Fitzpatrick in wild end to World Tour Championship but wins Race to Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Rory McIlroy's banner year in golf ended with fitting drama Sunday when he eagled the last hole in regulation to force a playoff but lost out to Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the season-closing World Tour Championship for a third time.

The consolation for McIlroy? A fourth straight Race to Dubai title — crowning him as the year's No. 1 player on the European tour — to add to his wins at the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, The Players Championship and his home Irish Open. McIlroy also helped Team Europe win an away Ryder Cup.

All of his big individual victories came in playoffs but a final one proved just beyond the Northern Irishman, though, after he hit his drive into a creek on the first playoff hole – No. 18 – and made bogey. Fitzpatrick chipped to 3 feet and rolled in a par putt to win the title again at Jumeirah Golf Estates, after 2016 and 2020.

“You never like to see the way it ends, but obviously delighted,” Fitzpatrick said after sealing his first win in two years.

McIlroy generated the biggest roar of the day when he poured in a 15-footer for eagle on No. 18 to complete a round of 5-under 67 and join Fitzpatrick (66) on 18-under par for the week. He also eagled the last at the Irish Open in September to force a playoff before going on to beat Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren at The K Club.

“In typical Rory fashion, he did it again,” said Fitzpatrick, who watched it unfold while sitting in the scorer's hut. He met McIlroy outside, shaking his hand and giving his Ryder Cup teammate a hug.

They did so again after the playoff — which finished with both of them as winners.

For McIlroy, it's a seventh Race to Dubai title, putting him one clear of the late Seve Ballesteros and one behind Colin Montgomerie's record haul.

“I didn’t get this far in my dreams, so it’s very cool," said McIlroy, who revealed that he spoke to Ballesteros' wife, Carmen, before his round on Sunday.

“It seems within touching distance now,” he added about catching Montgomerie. “I’d love to be the winningest European in terms of Order of Merits and season-long races. You know, I’ve probably got a few more good years left in me, and hopefully I can catch him and surpass him.”

Nine players either led or held a share of the lead across a wild few hours at the Earth course that culminated in Fitzpatrick making three birdies in his final five holes to overtake McIlroy and overhaul a slew of Europe’s other stars, including Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg.

A birdie putt from 6 feet at No. 18 took Fitzpatrick a stroke clear of Fleetwood (67), Åberg (66) and Laurie Canter (67) and two ahead of McIlroy, who was waiting in the 18th fairway knowing he now needed to make eagle.

He hit a fairway wood from around 230 yards to the right of the pin, got a good read from playing partner Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who was a few feet further away, and drained the putt.

Neergaard-Petersen (68) made birdie to join the group on 17 under, in a tie for third.

Fitzpatrick, the U.S. Open champion in 2022, started the season slowly but finished it strong, getting into the Ryder Cup team on the back of top-10 finishes at the British Masters in August and the European Masters and BMW PGA Championship in September. He then won 2 1/2 points from his four matches at Bethpage Black.

“To turn it around in the summer like I did and have a Ryder Cup like I did, feel like it’s hard to top given everything,” Fitzpatrick said.

“But the way that I played today, I feel like I really didn’t hit one bad shot all day. I’m so proud of myself, the effort that everyone puts in behind the scenes. Yeah, what a feeling.”

Marco Penge might not have chased down McIlroy in the Race to Dubai standings this week but he was still smiling after his round of 67.

It completed a breakthrough year that has seen him take one of the PGA Tour cards on offer for the top 10 players in the Race to Dubai standings who are not otherwise exempt.

The other nine players wound up being Canter, Kristoffer Reitan, Adrien Saddier, Alex Noren, John Parry, Li Haotong, Keita Nakajima, Jordan Smith and Neergaard-Petersen. They will be dual members of the two established tours.

Playing alongside McIlroy in the final group, Neergaard-Petersen needed to play the last five holes in 5 under to be one of the 10. He went eagle-birdie-par-birdie-birdie to do so.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Matt Fitzpatrick of England putts on the 18th green during the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after putting on the 18th hole to earn play-off with Matt Fitzpatrick of England during the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his second shot on the 9th hole during the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Matt Fitzpatrick of England watches his shot from the 5th fairway during the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Matt Fitzpatrick of England lines up a putt on the 5th green during the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after a birdie on the 1st hole during the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister who faces prosecution in his homeland over alleged abuse of power said Monday that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.

Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to far-away locations.

Current Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power more than two years ago with ambitions to roll back the changes, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the national right.

In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro's parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.

Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.

Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has hosted several politicians close to Law and Justice while Polish authorities were seeking them.

In a lengthy post on X Monday, Ziobro wrote that he had “decided to accept the asylum granted to me by the government of Hungary due to the political persecution in Poland.”

“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies — which I would have no opportunity to refute — I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday that Hungarian authorities have granted asylum to “several” individuals who would face political persecution in Poland, according to his ministry. He declined to specify their names.

In an English-language post on X, Tusk wrote that “the former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum.”

“A logical choice,” he added.

FILE - The leader of the Polish junior coalition partners Zbigniew Ziobro, speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)