Nacho Elvira came out on top after a roller coaster final round to claim his third DP World Tour title at the 2026 Dubai Invitational.
No less than five players shared the lead on a chaotic Sunday at Dubai Creek Resort, where overnight leader Elvira cruised into a three-shot lead following a third birdie of the day at the seventh.
Related: Nacho Elvira takes two-shot lead into Sunday in Dubai
He left the door ajar when finishing his front nine with successive bogeys as Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Daniel Hillier and Marcus Armitage joined the Spaniard at the summit at nine under down the final stretch.
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Lowry made his move with a birdie at the 15th, only to double bogey the last and spectacularly fall out of contention.
Hillier was the clubhouse leader at nine under, but Elvira carded his first birdie of the back nine at the 17th to earn a one-shot lead down the last and calmly rolled in for a final par to seal a brilliant victory, getting to ten under with his final round 69.
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Frenchman Julien Guerrier bounced back from a double bogey at the second with seven birdies to sit one shot behind Hillier in a share of third at eight under alongside Spain’s David Puig, McIlroy and Lowry.
Armitage double-bogeyed the last to join Matt Wallace and Dane Thorbjørn Olesen at six under, while Antoine Rozner of France and South African duo Thriston Lawrence and Dylan Frittelli were one shot further back to wrap up the top ten.
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Winner’s quotes
Nacho Elvira: Feels unusual. I mean, I’ve always been a slow starter at the beginning of the season.
So, to get a win at the beginning of the season like this is unusual, and on a course like this, I love it. When we came here two years ago, I fell in love with it. I think it’s a fantastic course, a fantastic venue, and I couldn’t be more happy to be honest.
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I’ve been in this position before and I feel like I’ve always tried to hold on to the score. And this time I knew that Shane and Rory were behind and some of the good players. I felt like I wanted to push a little bit to keep going and keep being aggressive, you know, I think I tried to do that.
And then all of a sudden I lost a little bit of way on eight and nine. Hit a terrible shot on ten. Managed to make the putt and I think that was a turning point mentally and stayed patient through the rest of the round.
I saw it every now and then. I’m not someone who looks at the leaderboards too much. I try to stay in the moment and the present as much as I can. At one point I saw it. But I couldn’t do really anything about it. I try, always, to make as many birdies as I can. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m just happy this time it turned around on my side.
I had no idea Shane had bogeyed that hole. The leaderboards are facing the other way, so I had no idea. I tried to go for it, and I was lucky enough that I had enough club to go just a little bit past the pin. When I turned around and I knew I had two putts to win, I find of felt more nervous to be honest. It’s a good position to be in but I was just a little bit nervous. But very happy.
I’m going to keep playing these next few weeks and keep trying to build on the momentum that I have right now and hopefully we can put ourselves throughout the year in more situations like this.
