Round 4 Highlights | 2026 Hero Dubai Desert Classic

One or two new pin positions for Tournament Sunday, which we've not seen here for a while. Normally there's one just tucked over the water. They've gone against that one for some reason. That's a quality shot. Yeah, nice flat line the bunker. Land it sort of halfway. Release like a putt. Well, he landed it short. Surely not. Yes, there you go. He hit two beauties down the first and didn't get a birdie, but more than makes up for it there with a nice little eagle too. Another chance. How many times have we said that over the last couple of weeks for Rory? From the right and he's binned it. That's more like it. We're talking about the big players in terms of the struggling on the greens. Craiswick. Thank you, Dom. I'm dyslexic and I see Craiswick and I just go blank. I cannot read that one out. But anyway, he's hit an absolutely fantastic shot. Craiswick. Remember the name. Yeah, if you need some assistance with the South African names, then Andrew is your man. Golf course in a pretty good number each day. Five under par. He's been shoddy off the tee, but everything else working nicely. Monster putt for Shane here on 15. He was in featured groups this morning. Oh, surely not. Hasn't held a thing all week. There you go. Well done. Molinari up at the second. It's his three. Moose to nine under within five of the lead. Awkward from the rough here. An important fairway to find. They all are, but especially this one with that bunker guard in the front right side of the hole. That is superb. Obviously nice to get a lie to be able to do it, but the execution on the back of it. Sensational. That's exactly where you should be aiming. I'm not sure. Pooch is capable or able of aiming away from the flagstick. It seems to take absolutely everything on. Seriously brave. Yeah, sensible. Took the danger out and played it really very nicely. What a great angle just to see how much turn there is. Yes, we know it's quick, but huge sweeping left to right. It's trundled on by, but it's left in the uphiller coming back. Pretty good effort. Forward to the left of it. Just to the right. Only just. What a shot. Straight up the hill doesn't want to move a whole lot. I said 13 was a winning score yesterday and I'm standing by it. Well, well, well. Shire the family of motorbikes. Let's go to Nikolaj Hojgaard who's on board the Par 5, 10th in two. So an eagle putt. Well, just lovely. I mean, you give yourself an opportunity like that. Nice to take it after what was a fairly ropey start. It's good. The final shot this week for Rory McIlroy. And that has been the theme of the week. Slightly different angle to Pavan, so he will be able to land this one on the surface. Trouble is the way the players around him are playing. That's just good enough. Just keep doing that. Give yourself a nice birdie putt on greens and they go in. Bonus. One, one, three. A great lie. He can spin it. He can spin it. One bounce and get it to dance. Well, there's real interest for the last hour or so. A chance here. They batched each other on the scorecard so far today. The first birdie today for David Pooch. Unusual flag at nine. Looking to pitch this all the way. Float it into the breeze. Has to be slow even though it's on one of the quickest greens out here this week. There you go. Just like that. But he doesn't want to button this or he'll go a little long. Sit down any time. Oh, sit down right next to the 10. That's an excellent second. He's found it. Game on. Birdie putt at the minus nine. Oh, yes. Knee bender. Helped it in. Bit of ball there. Nipped it. That's well played. Francesco half a club shy. Understandable. Wary of the back edge. That's better. Needs to get that putter working on this mixed bag of scores from Nikolai today. That continues on. It's two in a row. He's an eagle. A double. Three bogey. There we are. So trying to get it in first. A touch of work to do for Reid. Easy to miss to the left. I read it nicely. Three birdies in a row for Pooch. There it goes. Reid's first birdie of the day. And the gap is two. Interestingly though, Pooch is the one that's hold some putts. Reid really hasn't hold a putt of any note. Will that be impactful later on? Well played. If you want to be professional golfers, boys and girls, just live around the chipping green. Well, well, well. Forward grasp. Sometimes quite an abrupt one. He found a waste area from the tees. Chipped up to here. That is a gorgeous yardage. Just like that on the right right now. Just wipe across it. Get it to float in there. And get it to stick. It's a good plug. Chunky time. This lie is okay. So this is going to be a pop and a trickle down there from left to right. And then time again. He's had some really curious shots since he stood on the 11th tee. You know, it was a little bit kind of like a match play situation. You had to try and get in the head of Reid. He's just not been able to put the ball in the right place. We could easily see a two shot swing on that hole. Yeah. As well, just like that. And his lead has doubled. This should suit him. Okay. It's the first two putts I've seen him lead short all week and they've come in succession just at the wrong time. Chance for a three up the hill. Across the grain with a smart finish. You never know. Pick points. Very nice. And what wouldn't he give for a repeat of Friday when he finished birdie eagle. 1.13. Into a puff of it. A little twirl of the club. You can tell that's all he needs to know. Over the flag. I mean, it's not been spectacular. It's been solid. He's played cleverly. An opportunity. He come from the left. Has he got enough to get there? It's a tougher shot than it looks. It's not bad. Brilliant. A birdie birdie finish for the Englishman. A four under back nine. And he moves clear of Guerrier and Pooch. His moment here. Well done. And what a performance from Patrick Reid. A gold star performance as he collects his first Rolex Series title with a victory of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. He wins it by four. Patrick, corner up here in 2023. You've won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Describe your emotions right now. Hasn't fully set in yet. Today was a lot harder than I expected. I knew it was going to be. I just couldn't really get anything going on that front nine. I learned a lot about the round today. Instead of keeping the foot on the gas early, I tried to protect that lead since I had a four shot lead. David goes and birdies eight and nine and shut it down to two. Kess was like, hey, now it's a dogfight. Now let's get going. And he said, just go shoot under par on the back nine. No one will beat you. And we were able to get that birdie there on 13 to get to one under. And he gave me a gift there by bogeying. And from there on, it was just hit fairways, hit greens, and just don't make any mistakes. You said how hard it was out there. You won over that front nine. How much of a grind was those first nine holes for you? It was a grind. I mean, it was one of those nine holes. I really didn't feel like I hit it that bad. Just couldn't get anything really close. And then when I did, we underwrite a couple of putts. But besides that, it was just kind of steady. I mean, it hit the ball. I mean, hit it OK. I mean, didn't hit it close. But that's the hard part. When you try to protect, then all of a sudden, instead of looking at flags, you're looking away. And you misjudge a wind here and there. You get 50 feet all day long. And that's kind of what happened. And good thing we were able to make that switch there on the back nine and kind of get it going. David, as you said, he got the lead to two. 13 was a huge hole. Did it feel like the pressure valve just released a little bit after that hole to get the lead back to four for you? No. I mean, obviously, when we were four up with a couple left, definitely felt a lot nicer. But with the firepower that David has there, especially with his length, I mean, when he hit that drive there on 14, I'm just like, where the heck is he going? And he's almost in the fairway. And he's able to kind of cut the corner on 16. I know he's going to be able to get close there on 17. And so for me, I mean, I knew I had to keep the pedal down. Because with him, I mean, I felt like he would have had the advantage on the last couple holes with his length. Because I mean, I can't get to a lot of those corners. I can't drive 17. And, you know, just kind of those kind of things that I didn't take advantage of last time when I was here, that I was like, hey, you got to get it a little bit farther of a cushion. Because, you know, these guys, these long guys, I mean, they're going to take advantage of those holes. Patrick, really well played. You've got your name on the same trophy as Ernie and Tiger and Seve as well, who I know you've been compared to recently. Many congratulations. Well played. Thank you.