Rory McIlroy has described his strong finish at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship as a “great confidence builder” as he looks to close out a seventh Race to Dubai title.

McIlroy arrived at the Rolex Series event with a 441-point advantage over Marco Penge in the DP World Tour’s season-long standings, then extended his lead to 767 points after a brilliant finish at Yas Links.

The world No 2 carded an eagle and eight birdies in a stunning bogey-free 62 on the final day, his lowest ever round on the DP World Tour, to charge into contention before eventually finishing tied-third.

McIlroy finished a shot behind Aaron Rai – who won a play-off – and Tommy Fleetwood, with the Northern Irishman pleased to extend his advantage in the Order of Merit heading into the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.

“Obviously ended up one short but a great day of golf and a great way to end the week,” McIlroy said. “Also a great way to sort of go into next week in Dubai, as well.

“I just tried to keep my foot down and make as many birdies as possible knowing that I’m trying to win this tournament but also give myself the biggest cushion possible going into next week [DP World Tour Championship].”

McIlroy arrives at the DP World Tour Championship as defending champion after last year’s two-shot victory over Rasmus Hojgaard, having previously won the event in 2012 and 2015, with the 36-year-old having nine previous top-five finishes at Jumeriah Golf Estates in Dubai.

“I really like that golf course,” McIlroy said. “It really suits me. Probably suits me a little bit better than this course [Yas Links] does, just in terms of what you need to do off the tee and into the greens.

“This was a great confidence builder this week coming off a couple weeks off and hopefully [I can] just produce more of the same Thursday and onwards.”

There are 2,000 points available to the winner of the season finale, although McIlroy remains firm favourite to close out another Race to Dubai success and lift the Harry Vardon Trophy for a fourth straight year.

Race to Dubai success would leave McIlroy within one of Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Order of Merit titles, with Penge and Tyrrell Hatton – 1,721 points behind in third – the only players who could still overtake him in the standings.

A final-round 75 in Abu Dhabi saw Hatton finish tied-41st – 14 shots behind the winner – and further behind McIlroy, while Penge kept his Race to Dubai hopes alive after rallying to a share of ninth with a Sunday 63.

“I played great all week,” Penge said. “The putter has been very cold up until today [Sunday]. Yesterday [Saturday] I was poor mentally and broke myself down a bit and wanted to come out and fight back, and that’s what I did.

“The first three days, I was trying to attack as hard as I could. Today [Sunday] was back to the process and be aggressive inside 150 and take my medicine outside of that. Mentally, me and my caddie were great today, and nice to go into next week shooting that score.”

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