Rory McIlroy. Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America

Rory McIlroy flushed "possibly the best shot I've hit all year" to roar into contention for the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

But Shane Lowry confessed that he pushed too hard to keep pace with the likes of the Holywood star, who hit a 291-yard three-wood to four feet at the 18th and rolled in the eagle putt for an eight-under 64.

It was a round that left the world No 2 solo second, nine shots ahead of Lowry and just one drift of Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera, who shot a superb 63 despite feeling under the weather to head the race for a record $3 million pay day.

McIlroy admitted that after racing to the turn in five-under 31, he had to resist the temptation to push as he struggled briefly in the middle of his back nine before finishing with four straight threes — birdie, birdie, par, eagle — to move into contention for his fifth win this year.

“My patience was rewarded," said McIlroy, who bogeyed the 12th and had to scramble for pars at the 13th and 14th before producing that spectacular finish.

“Maybe in the past going to the 15th tee, I would have been trying to push it a little bit. But I was telling myself I'm still four-under par, there's a lot of golf left in this golf tournament and not trying to push it too much.

“It's funny, sort of counterintuitive, the less you try push it, it seems like the lower the scores are.”

As for the three-wood draw he hit to the 18th, he said: "It's possibly the best shot I've hit all year...I just flushed it.”

Bar the majors, McIlroy has produced some of the best golf his career this season and after returning to his new Florida home from his WGC-HSBC Champions victory to see that his wife had overseen the installation of his considerable trophy display, he’s keen to add to it.

“They were in storage for a year and a half, so just to come back to it, it's really nice,” he said. "It's a nice reflective moment, but it's also a motivational moment that this is what I can do and I want more of it.”

He cannot win the Race to Dubai but the battle for the Race to Dubai remains fascinating.

Austrian Bernd Wiesberger remains on course to be crowned European No 1 after he played his last eight holes in three-under to shoot 70 for a share of 14th, putting pressure on Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm and Lowry to finish first or second and Matthew Fitzpatrick to win if they are to deny him.

Rahm shot a 66 alongside Lowry to sit alone in third but while Fleetwood holed out for an eagle two at the first and raced to six-under with eight to play, he had to settle for a 67 that left him tied fourth with Tom Lewis.

Fitzpatrick could only manage a 71 while Lowry struggled to find his best golf and severely dented his hopes with an untidy 73 that left him tied 33rd.

"It was one of those days where I didn't play great," admitted Lowry, who birdied the first and seventh but then lost patience, pressed too hard and dropped three shots in his last ten holes to end the day tied 33rd.

“I struggled a little bit and It got frustrating towards the end.

”Jon was going very well and other guys were flying up the leaderboard. I was seeing the guys at 5, 6,7, 8, 9 under I was down the bottom of the pack on level par.

"It's my own fault and I just have to get out there tomorrow and see if I can do better.”

The Open champion found just five fairways but having shot a final round 63 to finish second behind Rahm on the Earth Course two years ago, he's not throwing in the towel.

"If you looked at some of the places I hit it today, you'd think I'd never played the golf course before," he said.

"I have shot 63 around here and I know I can go out there and do it. But first and foremost you have to put the ball in play.”

On the PGA Tour, Seamus Power was near the back of the field after opening with a three-over 75 at Sea Island in the $6.4 million RSM Classic in Georgia.

The West Waterford man (32) had 34 putts as he mixed three birdies with four bogeys and a double bogey on the Plantation Course where Webb Simpson fired eight birdies in a seven-under 65 to take the early lead.

Mike Lorenzo-Vera

“Honestly I'm not the feeling well at all. I have no energy. I was down, I had a lung infection in South Africa and a lot of treatment, and really just feel bad on top of that.

“Just one of those days where you try to put the ball in play. I played four holes yesterday as practise, and I felt that if I really relaxed a lot, just swing it, like 70 per cent or maybe less, ball was still flying pretty well.

“Well, nothing's clicking, really. I'm just trying to do well in every part of the performance and sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn't click. I have a lot to do better to be more consistent on good weeks. That's why I think I haven't won yet. There's plenty of work to do.”

Rory McIlroy

“It was great. I started off fast at four under through six, five under through seven. I held a couple of really good putts starting off, but I birdied the two par fives on the front nine and did what I needed to do. Then it got a little slow around the start of the back nine, but it was obviously nice to finish the way I did. I hit some really quality shots coming in which gives me a lot confidence going into the next few days.

“Honestly it's possibly the best shot I've hit all year. I had the equivalent 272 to the front, 291 to the pin, sort of back in off the left. Wind was off the left so it was a nice one for me to just aim straight at the pin and know if I hit my little draw it should hold but if it gets going on the wind, obviously the bunker on the right is better than the water on the left. I just flushed it.

“When I was over it, it was sort of enough left and I sort of carried my three wood off the deck about 280, so it was right on the limit but as soon as I hit it, I knew it was perfect. It was right out of the middle. Great to finish like that, and yeah, it was a great round of golf.

Jon Rahm

“Really good, even though I tried my best to mess it up on the last hole. Really good round. Six weeks of not competing, out of all those six weeks, most of the five were not touching a club. Pleased with the way I'm performing. I could tell how rested I was mentally because on some holes, I never lost patience, I never really got down on myself and stayed with that positive attitude. I'm hoping I can keep playing solid and keep it for the next three days.

“It was hard to kind of stop golf for a while, and then after a certain time, it was hard to pick it up again. So it was hard to get into that routine again but once I came to the tournament, you kind of switch, you get to the tournament, you get to grinding. I think it's just getting the feel of putting, chipping, so I spent a lot of time doing that, a lot of short game, putting. The swing, I was feeling good, so all I had to do was make sure my pace was fast greens was good. So far it's been good.”

Tommy Fleetwood

“You can only put yourself out of it on day one. There's a lot more to do. There's 54 holes now. There are great players up there and all I can do is do my stuff. I've got three days of work left really until the end of the year. Just make the most of them. Stay very present. Keep doing my best on every golf shot and see how we can get on. I would love to be up there come Sunday but that's a very long way away. I've got a little bit of practice tonight, have dinner and on to tomorrow.

“Very nice start. Hit a great drive and then I actually didn't expect the nine to reach the pin. I knew it would be so close. You can't see it, so you just take people's reaction, but it was the perfect start. I didn't feel too up or down. I was just happy with the execution of the golf shots. It's nice, last event of the year, only four days left, so make the most of a good start.

Bernd Wiesberger

“I put myself in tricky positions today. Had a lot of sand off the tee, unfortunately, and couldn't attack, even though conditions were a little bit windy it's still gettable. There's low scoring. Again like last week, I came off a sloppy start and we hung in there and shot a couple under par, so that's a positive.

“It's good. I try to cherish it as much as I can. I'm just thinking 72-hole tournament this week. I'm not trying to look at what is happening. I can't control what Tommy, Matt, Shane and Jon are doing or any other of the 49 guys. So whatever is in my control, I try to do as good as possible, and I've done pretty well with that this year and no reason to change that.

“I'm trying to play for a tournament here and I'm trying to play for the Race to Dubai title, and if I do my very best to finish this tournament as high as possible, that's all I can do. We'll add it up at the end.”

DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, UAE (Par 72)

Detailed scores

63 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra),

64 Rory McIlroy (Nir),

66 J Rahm (Esp),

67 T Fleetwood (Eng), T Lewis (Eng),

68 M Kinhult (Swe), R Cabrera Bello (Esp),

69 F Molinari (Ita), J Rose (Eng), D Willett (Eng), T Detry (Bel), H Li (Chn), M Schwab (Aut),

70 B Hebert (Fra), B Wiesberger (Aut), A Arnaus (Esp), L Oosthuizen (RSA), T Pieters (Bel), M Wallace (Eng), A Sullivan (Eng),

71 J Scrivener (Aus), S Garcia (Esp), R Sterne (RSA), K Kitayama (USA), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), E Van Rooyen (RSA), R Macintyre (Sco), C Bezuidenhout (RSA), R Langasque (Fra), P Waring (Eng),

72 M Korhonen (Fin), D Lipsky (USA),

73 Shane Lowry (Irl), J Harding (RSA), V Perez (Fra), G Migliozzi (Ita), J Campillo (Esp), L Westwood (Eng), P Casey (Eng), T Hatton (Eng),

74 J Hansen (Den), J Luiten (Ned), I Poulter (Eng), H Stenson (Swe), P Reed (USA), J Smith (Eng),

75 A Rai (Eng), M Southgate (Eng),

76 S Hend (Aus),

77 A Pavan (Ita)