Del Rey cruises to four-shot maiden win at Ras Al Khaimah; Harrington 50th
Alejandro del Rey. Picture: Getty Images
Alejandro del Rey stormed to a four-stroke victory as he claimed his maiden DP World Tour title at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship.
The Spaniard posted a third successive round of 66 to finish on 22 under par, four clear of Englishman Marcus Armitage, who battled valiantly but was unable to reel in the impressive del Rey at Al Hamra Golf Club, who becomes the first Spanish winner on the 2025 Race to Dubai.
Del Rey went into the final round with a two-shot lead but a lightning-quick start soon took him five strokes clear at the top of the leaderboard.
Although playing partner Armitage cut the gap to three at the turn, another brilliant burst of scoring from del Rey at the beginning of the back nine sent him six shots ahead with five holes to play.
The Spaniard never looked like opening the door for closest challenger Armitage from that point onwards, closing his round with five pars in a row to enter the DP World Tour winner's circle for the first time on his 70th start.
Fellow Spaniard David Puig was then alone in third place, three shots further back after a final round 65, with Australian Jason Scrivener a shot further back in fourth.
The impressive Spanish showing continued with Ivan Cantero, who finished in a tie for fifth on 12 under par alongside Englishman Joe Dean and Swede Sebastian Söderberg. Meanwhile, Adrien Saddier enjoyed a memorable day as he made a hole-in-one at the seventh on his way to finishing in a tie for 13th.
Victory for del Rey means he jumps straight to seventh on the Race to Dubai after earning his first points of the season in Ras Al Khaimah, and moves to second on the International Swing Rankings, led by England’s Tyrrell Hatton.
Pádraig Harrington made up for mediocre middle rounds of 75 and 73 following his opening 68 and carded a closing 69 to tie for 50th on three-under.
Player quotes
Alejandro del Rey: It's amazing because it's basically what I work for. I got to a point last year where I just felt like I wasn't having that much fun on the golf course because for me, playing for 20th, 30th place wasn't that meaningful at that point.
I just worked really hard since then because I just didn't want to be in that position much longer. And I feel like I've played many years with a lot of friends that have won out here and I knew I could do it but it just wasn't showing up. I'm just grateful and I'm very happy that this finally came.
I've always felt about myself that I'm a great closer of golf tournaments and I just wasn’t happy that I was in that position for the last couple of years where I didn’t even have the chance to win tournaments. I like to win tournaments, that’s what I’m out here to do. Not having the chance to was rough but it just felt great today, felt very natural and very easy.
It’s taken years, many different stages of my life and I feel like I’ve stayed very consistent throughout what I’ve wanted to do and I knew this was what I wanted to do, play golf and win golf tournaments. That’s why it wasn’t easy the last couple of years. It’s a great feeling right now.
