A closing two-under-par 70 on Sunday got Zander Lombard back inside the top 20 of the DP World Tour’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
It was a quiet tournament for Lombard – and the other South Africans in the field – after the crackerjack opening to 2024 by Thriston Lawrence the previous week. This time, Lawrence missed the cut after finishing runner-up with Rory McIlroy the week before, and Lombard, who was sixth in the earlier tournament, made four birdies and two bogeys to climb to five-under for the week and a share of 16th.
McIlroy ran out winner after narrowly missing out earlier, with his three birdies on the front nine enough to separate him from the pursuers and to hold off any threat of a late charge. His two-under 70 took him to 14-under, one ahead of Adrian Meronk of Poland, with Cameron Young of the United States in third on 12-under. LIV Golf’s Joaquin Niemann of Chile shared fourth on 10-under with Pablo Larrazabal of Spain and Canada’s Aaron Cockerill.
Lombard had made three birdies by the 10th, but he dropped two of those gains with bogeys on 14 and 15. On the 14th, he was unable to get up and down from a greenside bunker, and on 15, he went long off tee on the par-three, got out of the rough to inside six feet and two-putted from there.
Jayden Schaper was the next-best of the South Africans, with his closing two-under 70 seeing him climb 23 places into a share of 38th on one-under for the tournament. Dylan Frittelli and Casey Jarvis finished on level-par in a share of 41st after rounds of 73 and 71 respectively, while Hennie du Plessis and Louis de Jager slumped to closing rounds of four-over 76. Du Plessis was on one-over in a share of 51st, and De Jager in a share of 56th on two-over.
