Rory McIlroy has made his debut for the season, securing another great finish at the DP World Tour event in Dubai. The Irishman joined the field at Dubai Creek Resort to play in the 2026 Dubai Invitational. Notably, he came incredibly close to winning the event. He finished at T3, two strokes away from banking the $425,000 paycheck. However he doesn’t regret missing out on the win.

In the post-tournament interview, he told the reporters, “I wasn’t really focused on winning the tournament. I was just trying to piece it together and make some good swings and try to hit a few more fairways, which I did for the most part. Would have been nice to hit the fairway at the last to give myself a chance for birdie there.”

It wasn’t a flawless day for McIlroy as his driving accuracy was quite low at only 57%. Additionally, he could only save 50% of the scrambles. But that was the case for him throughout the tournament as he had a few hits and misses across all four rounds. In the second round, the 3-over par 74 probably hurt his chances of winning the most.

Speaking of the final round, he added, “I was just trying to sort of get the most out of what I had. Obviously, as you say, I didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. I hit a couple of good tee shots, a good iron shot into the 8th hole, a couple of good shots into 9, converted that. Hit some really about shots after that. Converted some putts.”

Notably, McIlroy was quite consistent with his performance on Championship Sunday. He managed to score six great birdies to keep up with the competition. However, a couple of short range putt misses on the 4th and the 7th holes pushed him out of the No. 1 position. He also hit a bogey on the 18th hole, to eventually drop down to third place.

That said, this was only the beginning of another exciting season for McIlroy. And he is looking forward to the upcoming events.

Rory McIlroy kicks off the 2026 season with a great finish

Despite the defeat, Rory McIlroy wasn’t completely discouraged by the result.

“Overall, it was a good first week back. I felt like I learned a lot of stuff about my game. I wasn’t very sharp, but hopefully I’m a little bit sharper going into next week than I was going into this week, I guess,” he said, gearing up for another big season.

This was also an interesting approach from McIlroy to join the field in the Dubai Invitational. He usually begins his campaign every year with the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Notably, the last time the Irishman joined the field at Dubai Creek Resort, he got a second-place finish in 2023.

The T3 finish will certainly boost his confidence before he plays the Hero Dubai Desert Classic 2026 next week. After losing the title to Tyrrell Hatton last year, he would be eager to win it again. And the confidence he has gained this week will hold him in good stead.