Shane Lowry held off the challenge of Rory McIlroy in a brilliant final round to claim the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
In a reverse of the 2014 finish, when McIlroy edged out Lowry to claim the crown, the Offaly man had to wait as McIlroy lined up an eagle putt on the 18th to force a play-off – but the latter's effort agonisingly shaved the hole, effectively making Lowry champion.
Lowry’s birdie on 18 took him to 17-under-par for the tournament, a score that also eventually ruled Jon Rahm out of the running.
The Spaniard produced a stunning round of 62 earlier in the day and his name sat atop the leaderboard until the final stages.
For Lowry, it is his sixth victory on the DP World Tour, and his first since the 2019 Open Championship. A marvel of consistency throughout the week, Lowry played the entire 54 holes without dropping a single stroke.
Beginning Sunday at 10-under-par, two strokes behind the overnight leaders, Lowry started with an excellent par save on the 1st hole, before properly taking off with an eagle on the par-5 4th hole, drawing a beautiful iron approach into 10ft.
Lowry, whose putter had run cold in the second round, found his groove on the greens on Sunday, sinking birdie putts on the 7th and 8th.
Posting 31 in his outward nine, Lowry now sat at 14-under-par, two strokes behind clubhouse leader Rahm.
The 2021 US Open champion made an extraordinary late surge, playing the inward nine in 29 strokes - a par of 37 - registering five birdies and two eagles, his run only marred by a bogey at 15.
What it means to @ShaneLowryGolf 🙌
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 11, 2022
Our 2022 @BMWPGA champion.#BMWPGA | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/sXrEcdg3GE
The Spaniard dropped in a lengthy eagle putt on 18 to post a new target of 16-under, taking Patrick Reed, who earlier carded a 63 to reach 14-under, out of the running.
Behind Lowry, McIlroy, who began the day at 11-under, was making stodgier progress, a second successive eagle at the 4th later undermined by a three-putt bogey at the 7th, taking him back to 12-under at the turn.
Meanwhile, overnight leaders Viktor Hovland and Soren Kjeldsen, who started the final round on 12-under, were unable to build any momentum on Sunday.
Hovland, in particular, suffered a woeful day off the tee, repeatedly hooking his drives left into trouble, and he had to scramble well to post 70, reaching 14-under by the end.
Up ahead, Lowry continued his march, beginning the back nine with a birdie at the par-3 10th, firing his tee shot into seven foot, draining the putt to close within one of Rahm.
On the par-5 12th, Lowry found the greenside bunker with his approach but an expert sand shot left him with a tap-in to draw level with Rahm on 16-under, with the closing par-5s to come.
McIlroy continued to make moves, likewise birdieing 10 and 12 to climb back to 14-under, though elsewhere, birdie opportunities continued to slip by.
With the rest of the field, save for McIlroy, struggling to keep pace, the sense was that Lowry needed to avoid trouble until the birdie opportunities on the closing two holes.
He continued to produce smooth golf, playing the four holes from 13 to 16 in par, finding every fairway, seeing a couple of birdie chances trickle by the hole.
McIlroy roared into contention with a massive birdie putt on the 15th, taking sole possession of third spot on 15-under, one stroke behind Lowry and Rahm. Standing on the 16th fairway, the Offaly man would have heard the roar.
With pressure rising, Lowry tossed in a rare wayward tee shot on 17 - his only such one aside from the 1st - but he got a stroke of luck, his ball colliding with the trees and ricocheting back towards the first cut.
A long way back, he had to lay up and had to settle for par. Crucially, McIlroy couldn't capitalise, slicing his own drive at 17 into the trees and making par.
Lowry split the 18th fairway and hit a superb approach from 210 yards to 20 feet.
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— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 11, 2022
The eagle putt came up short but Lowry tapped in for birdie to take the lead on 17-under and leave McIlroy requiring an eagle to force a play-off.
McIlroy left himself 23 feet for eagle but agonisingly saw his putt finish millimetres right of the hole, leaving Lowry as the champion barring an extraordinary finish from Thomas Detry or Kjeldsen.
As the Lowry camp embraced in the scorers' tent, his victory was officially confirmed when Detry, requiring a borderline impossible albatross from the fairway bunker, played the percentages and opted to lay up.
In truth, the celebrations had already begun at that point, Lowry revelling an overdue win at the DP World Tour's flagship event.
