By Mathieu Wood
From start to finish, the seventh season of the Rolex Series delivered compelling drama on the DP World Tour in 2023.
Across the five marquee tournaments, we celebrated four first-time winners while the winning margin was never more than two shots as the outcome was in doubt up until the 72nd hole.
For the second year running, the opening two Rolex Series events played out across back-to-back weeks in the Middle East in January.
After an unbeaten contribution at the inaugural Hero Cup - 3.5 points from four matches as Continental Europe beat Great Britain and Ireland - Victor Perez continued his fine start to 2023 with victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
In a thrilling finish to the final round at Yas Links, Perez chipped in from a bunker short of the green at the par three 17th to extend his lead to two shots. His wild celebration suggested he thought the job was done.
But as is so often the case, crossing the winning line is never straightforward.
After finding a horrific lie in a fairway bunker at the 18th, the Frenchman flirted with water with his second shot and closed with a bogey to leave the door ajar to nearest challengers Sebastian Söderberg and Min Woo Lee.
Söderberg - playing alongside Perez – could have forced a play-off with a birdie but could only muster a par five after failing to find the green with his approach.
That left just one player who could deny Perez a third DP World Tour title. Needing an eagle on the final hole to extend the tournament, Lee came oh so close as his chip finished inches wide of the hole.
Reflecting on his bunker magic in the closing stages, Perez said it “was probably the greatest shot I’ve ever hit.”
Another contender in Abu Dhabi was three-time Major Champion Pádraig Harrington. At 51, he would have become the oldest winner in DP World Tour history before settling for fourth place after rounds of 64-67 over the weekend.
Since its inception in 2017, many of golf’s most established international stars have won on the Rolex Series.
Yet, ahead of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic later in January, there was one notable exception; Rory McIlroy was still missing a triumph in one of the DP World Tour’s prestige events.
But he put that right in fine fashion as he produced a birdie-birdie finish at Emirates Golf Club to win by one stroke from Patrick Reed after a back nine duel over the Majlis Course as the tournament concluded on a Monday for the first time in its 34-year history.
It could have been so different though for McIlroy, whose tee shot at the 18th almost found water, before he holed a 14-footer on the last after laying up to make the perfect start to his year.
"It was a battle all day. Honestly it's been a battle all week,” he said in the immediate aftermath of his triumph.
“I really feel like I haven't had my best all week but I just managed my game so well and played really smart.”
When the Rolex Series returned in the summer with a visit to Scotland, it was a case of more late drama as McIlroy made it back-to-back victories in the blue riband events.
With the final round of the Genesis Scottish Open dominated by high winds, home favourite Robert MacIntyre emerged from the chasing pack to threaten to land victory at the Renaissance Club.
A stunning approach with a three wood to the last helped MacIntyre card a 64 to lead by one with two holes to play.
But McIlroy showed his champion spirit to birdie the par three 17th before the Northern Irishman struck a fantastic approach of his own to around ten feet, from where he converted for a birdie to break home hearts.
"To finish two-three in these conditions, the two iron shots that I hit, the five iron into 17 and the two iron into the last are probably two of the best shots I've hit all year, and then to finish them off with the putts as well,” he said.
With his victory, McIlroy became the first player in history to have won The Open Championship, Irish Open and Scottish Open.
More history was made two months later when Wentworth Club staged the prestigious BMW PGA Championship.
Despite a triple bogey at the third, Ryan Fox rallied either side of an interruption in play due to heavy rain and storms to compile a 67, with an eighth birdie of the day at the 18th hole proving the decisive moment.
It saw him finish one stroke ahead of English pair Tyrrell Hatton and Aaron Rai, who was a whisker away from forcing a play-off with an eagle at the last.
No New Zealander had ever won the BMW PGA Championship or a Rolex Series event, while he followed in the footsteps of Major-winning countryman Michael Campbell, who won at Wentworth in the 2005 World Match Play Championship.
"To have a back nine like that, especially after how I started the day, it's amazing,” he said.
“I played great. Pretty much didn't miss a shot from the third hole onwards and saw a couple of putts go in and it was a pretty cool feeling on the last to sort of know I had one to win and actually make it."
While McIlroy wasn’t ever in contention for victory over the West Course, his performances at the Rolex Series events over the course of the year helped him arrive at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship assured of winning the Race to Dubai title for a fifth time.
The fifth and final Rolex Series event of the year featured a stellar field of the leading 50 players on the season-long rankings, including ten members of the European Ryder Cup team.
And it was one of those who emerged victorious over the Earth course as Jumeirah Golf Estates played host to the 15th edition of the DP World Tour Championship.
In another thrilling final-day finish on the Rolex Series, Nicolai Højgaard made five birdies in a row over the closing six holes to collect the US$3million first prize and a further $1.2million from the Race to Dubai Bonus Pool for finishing second on the Race to Dubai Rankings.
It saw him earn a two-shot victory over Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Matt Wallace, who in the third round birdied every hole on the back nine to shoot a stunning 60.
"It means a lot. It's the sweetest one," said Højgaard of his third DP World Tour title, following his previous triumphs in Ras Al Khaimah and Italy.
The drama of the final event provided a fitting climax to a memorable season, perhaps encapsulated by the magical moments on the Rolex Series.
