This is for him - Rory McIlroy dedicates eighth Race to Dubai win to father Gerry

Rory McIlroy dedicated the Race to Dubai title to his father Gerry after equalling Colin Montgomerie's record of eight wins.

McIlroy topped the Race to Dubai Rankings delivered by DP World after a thrilling final-day battle with Eugenio Chacarra at the 2026 DP World Tour Championship, shooting 67 to finish second outright behind tournament winner Tyrrell Hatton.

Chacarra, the long-time leader in the rankings, fought valiantly at Jumeirah Golf Estates and remarkably at one stage on the back nine led by just a tenth of a point in the season-long standings, but McIlroy birdied the 16th and his rival was finally unable to find a response.

McIlroy became emotional in his greenside interview when asked about his father's recent double lung transplant, concluding: "This one's for him."

After composing himself and collecting his trophy, he paid tribute in his subsequent press conference.

He said: "My dad is a massive part of my life and has been my biggest supporter, is the one that got me into the game and the one that told me to follow my dreams and never give up and never think that you're not good enough or you're not big enough.

"It's obviously been difficult. He's been living with this for a while, for 18 months, and it got to the point where the last resort was he needed a transplant. So he had a double lung transplant in September. Thankfully, the operation was a success and he's recovering well.

"It's been a stressful time for our family. I've been up in Cleveland a lot because that's where he is. I didn't know if I was going to go to India (for last month's DP World India Championship) because I spent nine days in the ICU with him while he was recovering.

"If things were not looking as good as they were, I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable travelling or being too far away but he's got an amazing team up there, and the doctors and nurses are absolutely incredible.

"He's been making a really steady recovery. I went up to see him before I left for Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago, and he said to me, 'Rors, go and win me the Race to Dubai'.

"So that was in my head for the last two weeks, and I really wanted to do it for him and I know he's in his hospital bed and he would have been watching this morning. It was nice to be able to get it done for him."

McIlroy was playing in the fourth-to-last group, with Chacarra following in the next as they began Sunday's round locked together on five under par.

McIlroy rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt at the first and Chacarra began with a par before getting his challenge up and running with a birdie at the third.

McIlroy holed from 16 feet at the sixth and while Chacarra responded in kind, McIlroy added another birdie at the seventh to nudge ahead for the first time in the live Race to Dubai standings.

McIlroy puffed out his cheeks as he saved par at the eighth while Chacarra birdied the seventh and eighth to make it three in a row. McIlroy responded at the ninth to leave the pair sharing second with Mikael Lindberg and only one off Hatton's lead.

Chacarra bogeyed the ninth and then mishit his approach to the tenth to drop another shot but bounced back with two consecutive birdies - at which point he led McIlroy in the season-long race by a scarcely believable 4,753.46 points to 4,753.36.

McIlroy regained the upper hand with a birdie at the 16th and went right at an awkward 17th pin - but his birdie putt slid by and Chacarra parred the hole with a magical up-and-down to keep his hopes alive.

McIlroy's tee-shot at the last went right and struck a tree, forcing him to chip out and settle for a five to finish 10 under par, five behind champion Hatton.

Chacarra sent his approach into a greenside bunker and could only make par and when neither Lindberg nor Victor Perez could produce a miracle finish to move level in second, McIlroy was embraced by Ryder Cup team-mates Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm in the clubhouse before Chacarra offered his own congratulations.

McIlroy said of his record-equalling win: "They don't get any less special, I'll tell you that. And I had to work hard for this one. Eugenio has obviously had a great week himself and yeah, I think the last couple were maybe a little less stressful than this one.

"I had a playoff with Matt (Fitzpatrick) last year, and yeah, it's obviously been another great year, The Masters being the highlight. But I think just the consistency of my play - finished well at Wentworth, obviously finished well last week, finished well this week. Finished well at the Scottish Open, obviously had some decent finishes in the Majors. It's been another very consistent year."

Chacarra said: "It was a good fight. I just came out short. That's the beauty of golf.

"Obviously, when you play with the best in the world and he's played here 14, 15 times, you knew it was going to be tough, and he had a better day than I did."

The Spaniard earned himself a Dual Membership on the PGA Tour and added: "Yeah, super excited. But I love the DP World Tour. It's been so much for me and hopefully I can start good over there and come here as much as possible."

McIlroy said of his competitor: "He plays with his heart on his sleeve and you can see the emotions that he feels out there. I always view these things in the lens of the Ryder Cup, and he's certainly going to be an asset for Europe in the future for sure."

He added: "Very proud to win this again and yeah, put my name alongside Monty's with eight, and we'll go again next year and try to get one more."